


Turtle Tales

by Nyxteria



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: All my titles are puns it seems, Alternate Universe, Djinni & Genies, Ducktales inspiration, Gen, Magic, Mutants are accepted but a bit discriminated against, Suggested tags accepted, get it? .. Yea., not a lamp, really really old but still young turtles, turtles and ducktales inspiration
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-18
Updated: 2017-08-17
Packaged: 2018-10-07 11:42:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10359639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyxteria/pseuds/Nyxteria
Summary: She wasn’t sure what she had expected, but not this.“Deep breaths, there is a weird turtle mutant appearing from a ring in your dad’s apartment. … Who happens to be missing and this might be your only clue to finding him, get it together April.”April finds a Genie that's apparently been in her family's antique shop for generations. Her dad is missing and she needs to get him back, but there is a lot more going on than she thought possible.





	1. An unexpected introduction

**Author's Note:**

> Woo I'm putting something up! I know I got another one that isn't really finished, but I'll finish it. I don't know how often I will update this either, as I'm finishing uni in june and I have A LOT of work since it's my final year in art school. So until then no guarantees, this is actually a bit of a stress relief thing to keep me sane. I had this idea I'd just write and merge some stuff from things i like, which ended up being the ninja turtles show and the ducktales movie! (And sort of Aladdin). It's probably really weird but I just couldn't help myself. I love genies and turtles. And as you might be able to tell 2012 and 2003 were my favorite turtle versions.
> 
> All my titles are puns it seems, turtles and ducktales inspiration, get it? .. Yea.
> 
> This is sort of the 2012 version, but I'm adding a lot of stuff from the other versions as well, as you will notice. This is an AU where mutants are more common and accepted in society, but they are a bit discriminated against, sorta like poc and lgbtqa+ if you want a comparison from our world I suppose, but not exactly the same really.
> 
> As I've mentioned before I'm more of visual artist rather than a writer, sculpting and drawing is more my schtick, so if you find ways to improve things, errors and what not. Do point them out! :D I might add some artwork to this later, if I can find the time for it. *Slowly suffocating under school work.* Also this note is way longer than it was meant to be.

April was very concerned, very, very concerned.

Her father had just up and disappeared, without a word, as if that wasn’t weird enough he had left a note. A note which April now clutched in her hands as she walked past the shelves. 

She never thought she’d be in their antique shop’s storage at this ungodly hour, yet her she was, looking through dusty shelves with only a strange message from her dad to go on.

To be frank she was kinda mad at him, mostly scared for him, but kinda mad too. The note said nothing about where he was, or when he was coming back, or anything that seemed useful for that matter.

 

She recalled coming home late that day, her dad was usually home by then, making dinner, instead she had come home to an empty home. There was no sign of a fight... but she had this nagging feeling something wasn’t right. She had convinced herself that he might just have forgotten the time and went to bed.

Her feelings were confirmed though when she woke up the next day and he still wasn’t home, he had never done that before, not without telling her. And no one does anything like that to her without prior notice, especially not her dad, not unless something was terribly wrong or they wanted a really bad scolding. 

She was really starting to get worried, he wasn’t answering his phone or returning her texts, which were very uncharacteristic of him. She had sat down by the table drinking a cup of hot chocolate, feeling defeated and unsure about what to do.

She had of course already called his job… they hadn’t seen him and there was no business trip. The next sensible thing was to call the police, to look for him… they had said they would do their best, but there weren’t much to go on, and hopefully he would show up again. 

She was simply to stay put and wait. This had started to feel like it wasn’t an option, she needed to go out there and try finding him.  
She had recalled then, an evening, about a week ago. Her dad had been a bit nervy at dinner, like he had something to say… but wasn’t sure he wanted to.

“Dad… why are you so.. twitchy?” She had asked, raising an eyebrow at him. “Is there something wrong..?” A look of concern on her face. He had sighted and slumped back in his chair, looking uncertain.

“No it’s just… well.. If… if something happens, ever, if… just go look in my shoebox, the one on the top left. It will help you out, alright?” April had given him that ‘are you going crazy or should I be seriously concerned for your health?’ look. 

Afterwards he had simply dismissed it, saying he was fine, it was just a precaution, a just in case... nothing to worry about. But he made her promise to only look if something really did happen, she had kept it, if only to make him feel better.

Now thinking back there was probably more to it... not that she could ask him now. She was mad about that too, if someone had hurt him in any way, they would pay. Dearly.

Naturally she had quickly gotten up and rushed to look in the box after her dad hadn’t showed up the next day either… or the following day. This was as good as any clue she could get her hands on, and it definitely counted as an ‘if something happens’ moment. She hadn’t mentioned the box to anyone, it was a promise after all. She just had this feeling… she just wasn’t sure of what yet.

 

Now though she wasn’t so certain this was a good idea, the box had been a bit of a let-down, to be frank, just a note. A single old bloody note which didn’t really say anything except some weirdo instructions.

“This whole thing is ridiculous…” She murmured to herself as she searched with her flashlight along the dark shelves, these needed dusting, she could tell.

The only reason she had even bothered to follow the note was one, she hoped it somehow had a clue as to where her dad was, two, she was sort of curious... and three there wasn’t anything else she could do, she was no cop. Okay make that reasons. Self-defence class was not good enough for these kinds of situations... sure comes in handy though, just not right now.

She stopped in her tracks when her flashlight hit something shiny. She moved closer, upon further inspection it was a mirror, half covered in a dusty old cloth. She ripped it off, coughing as the dust swivelled around her in the air, the scent of old stuff and mould wafting through the air.

“Eugh..! How long ago was it since he cleaned this place??” Apparently a long while ago.

“Okay..” She looked at her note, she was supposed to look for a big mirror with decorations, check. This was the easy part, now for the weird part.

“Not like it’s not already weird or anything.” She checked her watch and started to try angling the mirror as instructed, god why was she even doing this? After getting it right, at least she was pretty sure it was, she switched the flashlight off. Now she apparently just had to wait for the right time and her questions would be answered, hopefully… maybe... okay no this was ridiculous, but she could always hope.

“Where are you?” She asked to no one in particular, and curled up on the floor while she waited, resting her chin on her knees. She sniffed a bit, this was stupid, her dad was stupid, this whole situation was stupid and she just wanted him back…

She realised she had nearly an hour to kill, oh joy... time went by so slowly when you kept checking the watch, so she stopped doing it altogether. She was nearly drifting off to sleep, her eyelids heavy.

Suddenly a light hit the mirror, she looked up curiously, blinking, her flashlight was off, so why..? Then she saw it, the moon… was that why it had to be at this particular time? April stared as the light slowly moved and checked her watch, she actually felt a little excited, maybe this was some sort of puzzle? And the real message was hidden?

Though she wasn’t sure why her dad would go out of his way like this to make it so complicated, when he could have just hidden whatever it was under her lunchbox or something. She waited for the right time, just a few more minutes… She made sure to doublecheck the mirror was in the right position, as instructed. When the time hit she quickly looked around… and…

“Nothing’s happening..?” She carefully looked at the mirror... what was she missing? Then she saw the spot on her leg as she glanced down.

“Oh.. OH.” She got out of the way, quickly looking to see where it would hit, this was actually a bit thrilling, she mentally apologized for calling her dad and this stuff stupid as she followed the light.  
It hit an old chest which seemed to contain cutlery, or at least it was supposed to contain cutlery. She gingerly took it off the shelf.

“Geez this thing is old.” She coughed a bit as she wiped off the dust. Her excitement, however, rose as she saw the same types of decorations on the chest as the mirror. Turning her flashlight on she quickly got to work on opening it, it was hard to open, but after a bit of brute force with the back of her flashlight she did it.

“Sorry dad.. Alright let’s see what you’re hiding.” She opened it and peered inside. Cutlery, her disappointment was utterly and totally overwhelming. This was stupid. Why was she doing this again?

“Why would you!” She was about to throw the chest in frustration, but decided against it. Looking around there really wasn’t anything else, no clues, nothing. She sighted, she supposed it would be better to bring it home, examine it in the light, not in this dark dusty place with only a flashlight. 

Considering the weirdness of it all there might as well be a hidden message somewhere in there, hard to tell in the dark though. Well that settled it. She put the rest back, grabbed the box and exited the shop, locking it behind her and then slowly making her way home.

When she got home she had searched the entire box, poked the walls and practically taken it apart, all she ended up with was cups, spoons, forks, something she assumed was a teapot and moth-eaten napkins along with some old-fashioned containers. The disappointment was complete.

“I’m going to bed.” 

She’d deal with this in the morning, but right now she was too goddamn tired of this bullshit. And mad, but mostly sad and worried for her dad.

 

\-----------------------------------

 

The next morning she slowly dragged herself out of bed, it had almost become a habit to check her dad’s room, still nothing though… She sighted and went to get breakfast.

“Oh.” April was greeted by a mess on the table she had caused from the previous night, as she started the water filled kettle for some tea, she got started on cleaning up the mess. The chest was ruined beyond salvation, but the cutlery just needed a good cleaning and a new box. She lined them up and brought a cloth, then she went to pour herself a cup of tea as the audible click of the kettle signalled the water was up to a boil.

“I really hope he doesn’t get mad about the chest when he gets back.” If he gets back, her mind silently reminded her, she shook of the thought and went to sit. “Okay, one thing at a time. And now I am talking to myself.” 

She sighted as she got to work.

April paused as something clinked when she lifted the teapot to clean it.

“..Huh?” She was sure she checked it last night, or did she? She was honestly too tired to remember.

Opening it up and looking inside, she found there was something there, April carefully picked it out. It was a ring, but not just any ring, she was pretty sure it was made of gold, or it was a really good gold paint. She didn’t know what the stone was made of, but it was a beautiful and rich purple.

“This must be worth a lot..” Perhaps he had meant it as a financial backup? Now this was starting to make sense, but it also made her more worried for her dad.. She carefully used the cloth to get the dust off it, it had a beautiful shine to it, it was almost glowing... It was glowing?

When something green and big appeared in front of her she practically fell out of her chair, startled by the sudden appearance.  
She stared at the mutant in front of her.

“Where did YOU come from?!” April wasn’t sure how he got in, he was suddenly just… there.

He blinked and looked at her, seeming just as surprised as he stumbled off the table.

“How can you be here...?! I was sure you-” Then he paused, seeming to contemplate something and staring at her intently.

“No it’s not you, is it?”

April was very confused, who was this… weird mutant and why did he talk to her like that? He was the one invading her house! She slowly got up, ready to defend herself.

“How did you get in here and why are you in my house?! Get out!!” She grabbed a chopping board from the bench and hit it on his head. 

“Woah wait!! No need to get violent! You brought me here…!” He quickly held up one arm to block, then carefully pointed at the ring on the table with the other. “I came from there! … okay? You used the ring, right? I’m not a burglar! Please believe me...” He tried to smile a bit but backed off quickly. She paused mid strike.

She wasn’t sure what she had expected, but not this. 

Looking the mutant up and down he did not seem like an invader at all, more like someone going to a weird costume party, actually. He was some kind of turtle based mutant, with a white turban and a purple feather in the middle, there were big, thick golden hoops hanging down on both sides of his head like earings.. with a matching pair of bracelets on his arms. 

She assumed the hoops were attached to his hat, as he did not seem to have any ears. A simple loose, purple and short open waistcoat with white edges hanged from his shoulders, and puffy white trousers with purple edges ending just above his ankles completed the outfit.

“.. What the actual.. you tell me who you are, where you came from or so help me I’ll throw you off the balcony and call the cops!” 

He stared at her for a second, then quickly began to introduce himself, while April kept a slight distance.

“M-my name is Donatello, I’m a turtle and as I said I came from that ring and-“

“Prove it.” She said sternly, cutting him off. “If you came from the ring you can return there, right? So prove it.” 

“Yea but..” As he was about to argue he saw the angry and scared look she was giving him, he did not like that look. “Okay but.. get me out again, alright? I don’t like it there.”

The turtle sounded almost a bit sad, she was surprised by his response, but still very, very suspicious. There was no way he’d actually be able to do it, right?

The mutant in front of her named Donatello stretched a little, then snapped his fingers, and to her utter surprise and bewilderment, his whole figure seemed to distort, she stared as he was seemingly sucked away, into the ring.

“….” She found herself alone in the kitchen again, the ring giving off a soft glow before looking like nothing of that had just transpired. Then she freaked out.

“Oh my god what is going on?! He DID come from the ring! What do I-“

 

She spent the next hour freaking out, phasing back and forth and stress eating some ice cream, because that solves everything.

“Deep breaths, there is a weird mutant appearing from a ring in your dad’s apartment. … Who happens to be missing and this might be your only clue to finding him, get it together April.” She told herself as she looked at the ring, currently placed on the table where she had left it. She didn’t really have all that many options. Only one way to find out. April steeled herself and carefully repeated what she had done when the curious turtle first appeared.

 

Donatello found himself standing in the unique house again with April sitting by the table. He felt slightly betrayed and pouted, crossing his arms.

“Took you long enough… nice pep talk there though.” Judging by her face, mentioning that was probably not the best idea, he hadn’t realised that she didn’t realise he could hear her. Ops.

“… Sorry? I wasn’t listening on purpose, I swear!” Something cold and wet hit his nose and he yelped in surprise, trying to wipe it off.

“Serves you right.” April fumed as she scooped up another spoon of ice cream and shoved it in her mouth. “Okay so I believe you..” She said begrudgingly as she pointed her spoon at him.

“Finally!” He smiled at her. It did seem genuine, she decided.

“Great. Now you’ll answer my-“

She was interrupted when something suddenly caught his attention and he called out in surprise, April watched as the turtle darted towards the window and pressed his face against it.

“Ooh, WHAT. IS. THAT?!” He exclaimed, sounding excited, she looked confusingly at him.

“What do you- hey!” Suddenly he was back and she was grabbed by the arm and dragged to the window, looking at his thick finger pointing at something.

“What’s that? what’s that??”

She quickly reclaimed her arm. “Take it easy, will you?” 

“Sorry… but what is it??”

She peered down at the street, there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary there?

“It’s just a bunch of cars and-“ 

“CARS! What’s cars? How do they work? Could we take a closer look…? Do you have one?!” He looked excitedly at her and smiled wide, showing a bit of a gap in his teeth.

“Oh uhm.. okay slow down! They run on wheels..? Like.. there is an engine spinning them..” April had to admit, she was a bit taken aback, the weird costume was one thing, but didn’t this guy know anything? “And no I don’t have one, but if you wanna know, why don’t you just look it up online?”

“Online?” He asked curiously, and April instantly regretted saying anything.

“You know, the internet? On a computer?” She could tell by his expression he did not know what she was talking about. At all. “.. the network of information?” Nope. Nothing.

_OH. MY. GOD._

“Where you born under a rock?! … Don’t answer that.” She held up a hand trying to think this through. This guy might or might not know something.. An idea hit her.

“Okay here is the deal, answer my questions, in return I’ll show you the internet.” He smiled brightly at that, not a hard one to bribe then.

“Deal!”

She sat down by her bowl of ice cream again. “Okay so… Questions.” She skimmed her head for anything she could think of, and decided on the more pressing ones first. “Where is my dad? And how come his note led me to.. you I guess?” She looked suspiciously at him as he sat down on a chair opposite her.

Donatello paused and scratched his neck. “Oh well.. you know.. I don’t know.. I’m not sure it was actually his note per say.. I’ve been in your family for generations, or well, the ring at least, in a manner of speaking. It was stored away for safekeeping you see, and you found it! Which I by the way am very thrilled about, I was starting to worry I’d never come out again.” 

“Oh really, I can’t tell.” She couldn’t help but comment sarcastically, considering his earlier excitement.

“I mean it though! Really, thank you.”

“I was being sarcastic.” 

“Oh.” He smiled nervously, playing with his thumbs.

“A-anyway, I don’t know where your dad is.. but I could try help you find him? Ooh.. By the way what year is it?” 

April wasn’t sure what to make of… all of this. Did her dad know about this? Or had he just repeated something he was told by his parents? 

She did know they had had that antique shop in her family for ages, this was confusing, and she couldn’t help but make a disappointed face when he didn’t know where her dad was, back to square one. 

Well, almost. This wasn’t exactly helpful, but she supposed any help whatsoever was a start, he did seem willing to help, even if it was a weird person who could hide in a ring. He seemed nice enough, for now. The police weren’t exactly helping anyway. She hardly noticed Donnie was looking at her while she was lost in thoughts.

April blinked as a big green hand waved in front of her, she jumped.

“Don’t! Do that.. I’m not used to.. having mutants around.. no offense.” She winced slightly at her wording, she didn’t want to sound racist. But figured he probably didn’t know the state of affairs regarding that particular topic either.

“Sorry.. I just, wanted to ask your name. Oh no problem, I didn’t expect you to, I’m surprised you’ve even seen one before.” He looked at her uncertainly when she gave him a weird look. “Did I say something wrong?”

“… How long have you been in there? It’s 2012 and my name is April O’neil, by the way. And mutants are fairly common, it’s just.. they do still face a bit of discrimination and such.. it’s getting better though! I don’t have anything against them, it’s just.. I just happened to never make friends with one, and I don’t want to accidentally offend you. I didn’t mean that you look scary or anything, really. Just… not used to it.”

“Oh.. that’s a long time..” An expression she couldn’t quite identify flashed across his face, then it disappeared.

“… heh.” He chuckled a bit, and looked at her with amusement.

“Don’t worry about it, back in.. uh where I come from, mutants were a rare sight, and despised. It’s going to take more than that to offend me.”

“Oh.. well if you haven’t been around for a while I suppose.. It’s still not right though, you shouldn’t have to be used to worse, ya know? Please tell if I slip up or anything.” He seemed surprised, well she did turn from trying to whack him with a board to being quite polite.. But she took the response as positive. She wasn’t sure when the conversation had changed directions.

“So how come you were trapped in a ring? I mean, it’s not really, you’re not really, just… you shouldn’t fit.” She ended flatly.

“Oh well, I’m not exactly, how do I explain this..” He seemed to hesitate and threw her a few uncertain glances. “Let’s just say I’m pretty good at squeezing into tight spaces for now?”

She raised an eyebrow at him.

“I can use magic and.. I’m just saying everything at once might be a bit much. Just the ring took you an hour.” He added. She looked at him for a moment, she didn’t really like his vague answer. There was a lot more questions to ask, but this was also a lot to take in at once, if she was being honest with herself.

For now she supposed she could hold her end of the deal in the meantime, while formulating some more questions to bombard him with. She did kinda need a moment to catch up after all of this too.

“Okay.. fine. You kinda did answer some of my questions and.. a break wouldn’t hurt. I promised you that internet tour and.. I guess a quick lesson would be useful if you’re gonna help me find dad. You can have some ice cream, if you want.”

She barely had the time to finish the sentence before he jumped up in excitement, apparently, anything to satisfy his curiosity got him on his feet. She decided to run with it for now, no use dwelling on things for too long. Also he seemed kinda nice once you got past the weird outfit and.. all the weirdness really.

A few hours later and she had given him a short tour of the house, and had to cut it short because she had to explain the fridge, the toaster, and it was kinda fun and all but after a while she was fed up with all the questions.

Now she was stretched out on the sofa, tired after having to explain every single thing in the whole damn apartment he didn’t recognise. 

Trying to stay awake she sluggishly watched the computer screen and texted with her friend, Irma. She sighted and typed to her. If someone could figure this out maybe she could. The turtle wasn’t too happy to discuss the subject and kept avoiding it anyhow.

_What do you make of it?_

_April, if this is some kind of elaborate joke by you and your new friend to make me look silly it’s hardly funny._

_I’m SERIOUS. He. Came. Out. Of. The RING! I’d record it but he doesn’t wanna do it again, cause I might have freaked out and it took me an hour to get it together again… (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻┻_

When Irma seemed to stop replying she switched tactics.

_Common Irma, you’re the smartest friend I got! (◕‿◕✿)  
I know you like these religious and mythical stuff, you gotta at least give me a guess, or something, I believe in you! ~~ <333_

She quickly typed in, after a while her phone dinged, She quickly checked. Oh yes, flattery always works with Irma, almost anyway.

_Right. Okay, let’s say you’re not joking, and you actually did find this.. ring. What does it look like? How does it work?_

April quickly typed a message and sent her a few pictures of the ring and mutant. Along with a short description of how she got him out of there and how he seemed to get back.

_Soo.. what do you think?_

_Irma?_

_.. Hello?_

Maybe she ditched her again... Her phone dinged shortly after though.

_Hold on. I’m thinking, I’m getting some books, give me a day or so to look it up properly! And stop spamming me!_

Sighting she put her phone back in its pocket, Irma always wanted to do things thoroughly, no wonder she did better in school than her. She glanced over at Donatello, or Donnie, his name was a bit long and he didn’t seem to mind nicknames.

Her new acquaintance frantically searched the internet for anything and everything. After she had taught him how to use a computer and introduced him to the internet and it’s ‘glorious’, his words, not hers, search engine, his fingers had been on fire ever since.

She had helped him in the beginning but by now he was fine on his own, just in case though she had decided to put on the 18+ filter. No need to introduce him to that side of the internet, which would probably eventually happen if he kept looking up everything he stumbled upon.

At least she didn’t have to keep talking to herself anymore to make the apartment feel less empty.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I ended up getting the next chapter done anyways! I got chapter 3-5 in progress but we'll just see when I finish them I guess! And finally some more characters are joining in.

Michelangelo sat down in his room reading some comics, he’d loved them the moment they had started showing up. He giggled to himself and couldn’t help but be glad to be here, sure it had its drawbacks, but the perks were pretty cool too!

Looking at the clock he realised it was almost time for lunch, boy was he glad it wasn’t his turn to be the company’s owner yet. It would be in a few decades though... he sighted.

He and his brothers had decided to start a company to use as a base of operations once the industrial craze hit the fan, it had seemed fun at the time… if it wasn’t so much boring paperwork to it. 

They did have a really neat penthouse on top of their office though, and the view was good.

Leonardo had started as the owner under a false name, once he was “too old” Raphael took over as his heir, and he was now the current owner.

Well, it was all a big charade, but they couldn’t let people find out they didn’t age. He hoped they would find their missing brother soon though, and make everything right again. That way they could drop all this and focus on the fun!

No, comic had to wait, now lunch! He jumped up and tossed the magazine in his piled-up collection. Once out he found Leo struggling in the kitchen area.

“Whatch’a up to Leo~? Can’t get the toaster to work again?”

Leo groaned in response. “It refuses to work no matter what I do! Just… could I get some help?”

“Oh I dunno Leo, a turtle would think you’d have learned by now how modern tech works! Buuuut.. I am feeling awfully generous today.. what’s the magic word~?” He teased and smiled as he walked up to his brother. Leo sighted.

“… Please?” 

“That’s my bro~ And I’d be my pleasure~” He grabbed the toaster, turned the wheel and plugged it in. As it started working he made a dramatic bow which made Leo roll his eyes. “You are welcome~” 

“Gee thanks.. Have you seen Raph yet?” 

“Nope~ But he should be back any minute now or so~ Unless the meeting drags on, which it usually dooes~”

Leo watched as his brother started picking out stuff from the fridge. “You know we could just hire someone to do that for us?” Mikey turned towards him with a gasp.

“Leo! How dare you!” He said, way to dramatically for it to be taken seriously. “You’d just take the joy out of life with those kinds of things! You gotta appreciate it and do things for yourself! Otherwise we might as well just sit on the couch all day.” 

“You already do though?” 

 

“Shush! That is not the same thing!” He defended while pointing a cucumber at his brother. “ I do stuff! It’s called information gathering~ Also I don’t see you hire anyone to train or look for bad guys for you, do you~? So let me have my cooking. I also train so you got no room to complain.”

The eldest raised an eyebrow, not so sure he would call it information gathering but.. He was about to reply when he heard the door.

Mikey grinned wide as he saw Raphael walk in, looking uncomfortable as he pulled on his tie with a finger.

“Suits suit you~” Mikey called playfully towards him.

“Shut up, this thing is constricting.” He grumbled as he started to take it off, dumping the suit carelessly on the floor.

“You have no appreciation for my puns, besides, not like you gotta wear it all the time~” Mikey pointed out while lightning the stove up and adding some oils to his pan.

“You better get used to it, I have a feeling this suit trend is gonna stay for at least a few more generations.” Yup, there it was. Their eldest sibling can’t seem to help but add comments towards Raph, though reasonable, he knows they get under his skin.

Mikey sights, so predictable, then he turns his attention towards his can of yet another new-found sauce he’d stumbled upon.

Despite its downsides Mikey was really digging this century. He stretches over the counter to get the remote for the TV while Raph and Leo’s bickering blurs out as background noise.

“Donnie would have loved this~” Suddenly everything falls a bit too quiet, and Mikey realises what he’d just said. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to-“ 

“It’s alright, we miss him too.” Leo intervened. “But we’ll find him.”

“Oh yea? How many more decades are you gonna keep telling yerself that?” Raph answered with some heat in his tone. “Just admit it, we screwed up big time and ain’t nothing we can do to fix it! He’s as good as gone. ‘sides we haven’t seen our enemy in a long time either!”

Definitely building up for a proper argument, this would not do, time to disrupt.

“Guys! Come on! This isn’t helping!” Mikey waved his arms and jumped in between them, armed with his cucumber. “I’m sure Donnie would agree with me. ‘sides we got a few clues, so let’s keep searching. M’kay? It will work out!” He smiled at them, he could tell they wanted to believe him, but..

“So why don’t we relax in the meantime~? Arguing isn’t gonna find him any faster.”

“Alright Mikey.” Leo sighted. “We’ll try.”

“Well I’m outa here, call me if ya need me.” And just like that Raph was out the door again, leaving his work attire and papers on the floor. They let him go though, he always needed a good run after being stuck in one of those tedious meetings.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------

 

“What the hell are you reading?” April questioned as she glanced at the laptop.

“I found these weird creatures called nudis, they live on the bottom of the ocean, like sea versions of slugs! Fascinating, isn’t it?” He practically shoved the picture in her face in his enthusiasm.

“Great but.. aren’t you getting a little off topic? I thought you wanted to check out modern society? How’d you end up on that page?” April pushed the laptop back down and looked at Donnie, maybe she shouldn’t leave him with that laptop alone for too long..

“Oh I found this mention of steam engines I needed to check out and it led me to this one here... and I just HAD to click on that word to find out what it meant. Then I found this in the text about biopsies, then it led me to...” April quite quickly started to tune him out, she did not want hours of recap on his research adventures.

“Okay, okay, I get it.”

“Hey!” Don unhappily exclaimed as April stole the laptop back from him.

“You’ve had it for hours, now schh. We gotta find clues on where to look for dad, you wanted to help right?” She smiled when he nodded, then they both settled back in the couch to see where they should start.

“So how about you tell me a bit about him to begin with?”

April pondered a little while closing down tab after tab and bookmarking them all under the map name ‘Donatello’, there was just too many of them to keep them all open.

“Alright, so, his name is Kirby, he’s a psychologist…. He works with people, do not look that up right now.” She did not have endless time for side tracking after all. They’d had plenty already.

“Here’s a picture and.. well.. he’s kinda nervous, doesn’t really go out. He comes home straight after his job to make dinner and.. that’s about it? He goes on business trips occasionally, but I called his job, and they haven’t seen him and there is no trip.”

Donatello nodded. “Where does he work? Maybe we can find something going on in the areas he spends time in?”

April smiled. “Hey that’s a pretty good start.” They dived into the research, and after a while they actually started coming up with things. Just little bits and pieces here and there, but it was a start.

“Okay so there are a number of mysterious disappearances in this area..” She pointed at a map. “We could check it out and see if we find someone suspicious, or ask around, someone might know something. If he was.. kidnapped.. Anyway I’m pretty sure this is a good start.” 

“Maybe we should look up potential organisations who could have kidnapped him..?” Donnie suggested. This Kirby person did not seem to know a lot of people from what April told him, at least not the kind of people who would kidnap you if you owed them money or anything. “.. he didn’t borrow money from one or anything, did he?”

“No! I mean.. I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t.. his job pays well!” April added in her dad’s defence. She couldn’t help but feel worried though.. could her dad possible have gotten tangled up with loan sharks? That didn’t seem plausible… though nothing seemed to these days.

“I’m sure he wouldn’t.” April curled up on the couch, feeling helpless all over again, what had her dad gotten himself into? Why wasn’t he answering, where could he possibly be?

“You okay?”

April blinked as a hesitant hand patted her carefully on the shoulder, she had nearly forgotten she wasn’t alone anymore. “Yea.. I’ll be fine.”

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

 

There was nothing better than having food, some training and after that a relaxing bath in the spa. This truly was one of the best perks with your own penthouse. Mikey sighted contently as he relaxed down into the warm bubbly water, his brothers soon following.

“This is the life~” 

“Mhm..” Came his brothers tired and relaxed replies.

They stayed like that for a good while, taking it easy and just enjoying the warmth seeping into their bodies.  
“So how is everything going?” Leo asked after a while, Mikey groaned.

“Do we have to talk work right now?”

Leo snickered. “Only for a moment, just checking how things are going. Robberies have increased in numbers, I haven’t found anything but small gangs so far, but it feels like someone is directing them... I can’t be sure of anything yet though.”

Raph sighted. “I wish I had your job man.. company’s fine. But boring. We need to find a new sponsor for the annual event by next fall.” He grumbled, somehow Mikey found it weird to hear Raph talk about company related work, not long ago Leo and Raph’s jobs had been the other way around, that had seemed more fitting somehow. 

 

His turn then. “All’s fine, I found a list of people in this city named O’neil, just gotta check them one by one and if we’re lucky we’ll find the right one~” Mikey added after a moment of silence.

“I can’t wait for Mikey to take over.” The hot-head sighted.

“I can.” Their youngest added, he was NOT looking forward to that.

“How are you going to determine if they’re not the right O’neil?” Leo asked curiously.

“Oh that’s easy, I’ll just ask them some questions, break into their house and look if I gotta.” Mikey shrugged, he’d done it before. And if they had it he’d find it. He was sure of it.

“Just be careful, alright? We don’t know if the foot clan is out there, they might as well be the ones behind the rise in gang activity. That robbery of the museum worries me.”

“Yeah, yeah... now relax, worry later~” he yawned and settled back into the soothing, warm water.

Leo sighted but complied, too much worry would just clog the mind, though it was partly his job to worry and fuss over his little brothers, that’s what big brothers do.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------

 

A few hours later and they were ready to go on their first search. April packed some notes, spare money, maps, an extra jacket just in case along with the ring, which apparently, they needed to bring. She put it safely inside her inner back pocket.

Donatello couldn’t contain his excitement, he’d only seen the apartment and out the windows, this was going to be so much fun! Oh and finding April’s dad too, that was important and serious stuff. But oh all the new things to see!

”Wait, you’re not seriously gonna go out dressed like that, are you?” April questioned when the turtle moved to walk out of her dad’s apartment.

“Hm? Why? Is it that weird? People seem to be wearing anything though?”

“Uh yea, it’s.. how do I say this... VERY outdated. You look like you’re going to a costume party for pete’s sake! And there are certain clothes for certain occasions! This isn’t Halloween.” She facepalmed, he looked confused but understanding soon hit him.

“Oh, right. How’s this?” He snapped his fingers, and suddenly his trousers and waistcoat were gone, April quickly put her hand up in front of her eyes.

“I didn’t mean you’d go naked!!”

Donatello blushed and spluttered at her sudden comment. “I.. I’m NOT naked! I have a shell!”

“But it LOOKS like you’re naked!”

“A-am not! It’s a shell! See? I’m a turtle! I can’t be naked!” He gestured to his shell, clearly covering most of his body, April carefully peered at him through her fingers, he seemed quite flustered at her statement.

 

“But when you wear cloths and then suddenly take them off it feels like you’re naked.” She stubbornly argued. The turtle facepalmed and groaned, snapping his fingers and he had his regular getup back on.  
“Better?”

“… Not really.”

He glared at her. “If you’re gonna be picky we’ll never get out of here.”

“Why can’t you wear something normal then? Like jeans or.. okay those might not fit but.. something!”

“Does it look like I know what ‘normal’ or the ‘right occasion’ here is??” Don was clearly becoming a bit frustrated, but so was she. And that was getting nowhere fast.

“Okay, okay, we can check dad’s closet and see if there is something there, how’s that?” She compromised and was relieved when he nodded.

Turns out most of her dad’s wardrobe wasn’t something fitting for a turtle though.

“Maybe this one..?” She held up a pair of rather baggy trousers, a bit patched but okay, better than his weird puff pants.

“I don’t see how these are better, they have holes..”  
“Holes are fashionable.”

“…I guess I just have to trust you.” The reptile said reluctantly as he inspected them.

“I decided to trust you weren’t some burglar.”

“Touché” He gingerly tried to stretch them out, still a bit tight around the shell, a quick snap and they were a size bigger. “Better~”

“How do you do that..?” 

“Just.. one of the perks of being me, I guess?” he shrugged. “Can I keep the waistcoat or does that one offend you too?”

“No waistcoats, it will look silly, along with that hat and bling of yours.” 

“… Bling?” He gave her a confused look, right, no slang.

“I mean the stuff in gold, it’s gold, right?” she pointed at his bracelets and the hoops.

He looked down at them and seemed to hesitate a little. “Oh. I can’t take those off.” She paused and looked at him, he gave her a sheepish look back and shrugged.

“What’d you mean? Of course you can? Look it’s just..” She grabbed his arm and tried to pry one of the bracelets off. She tried for a solid ten minutes while Donnie just stood there looking at her. “..You done yet?”

April gasped and let go. “What did you do?! Did you glue them on??” She stared at the offending bracelet, and considered if it would perhaps give with some oil.

“No, one of the downsides of being me, I guess?” He shrugged. “I live by a lot of rules, I can’t take them off, that’s just how it is.”

“…Fantastic.” She scoffed sarcastically. “If someone tries to rob us I blame you.” She poked him on the nose, then tried to find something that could perhaps cover it up a bit.

 

“Okay you know what, screw the clothes, let’s just get this coat and cover it all up instead. You can oversize it, right?” April said as she dragged a light grey coat from the rack, one her dad usually goes to work in.

“Sure.” He shrugged and grabbed it, adjusting its size as he put it on and buttoned it up after inspecting the contraptions a bit. “How’s this then?”

“Hmm…” April inspected him carefully, he rolled his eyes and sighted, but she ignored it. “It’s an improvement. Can you change the hat too? Hold on..” She stretched up to a shelf and dragged forth a hat, it was more of a panama hat and suited the coat quite well. “Maybe to something like this..?”

“Hmm.. doable.”

April watched as the turban changed, in looked like the panama hat, but it was white, and the purple feather and hoops were still there, making it look slightly silly no matter how she tried to look at it. “You suuure you can’t remove those hoops?”

“This is the best I can do.”

She sighted in defeat. “Can you at least put the feather on the side? It’s how they are meant to have feather decorations.” She ignored his annoyed stare and nodded in approval when he made the adjustment. If this was as good as it was gonna get they’d just have to roll with it.

 

Donatello finally got to take a step outside the apartment, April was one demanding girl. But now he could at last explore the outside! And oh, help her find her dad, of course. He had things he needed to find too, but it could wait a few days, he wanted to explore first and there was no point in rushing.

“What are-“ 

“Keys, lock, stairs, elevator.” April quickly replied, as she locked the door.

“I know what stairs are. What does the elev-“ 

“It gets you up or down if you can’t or don’t want to take the stairs, now get in. And stop asking so many things, people will stare at us.” April sighted as she opened the elevator doors and stepped inside.

She watched as the turtle carefully inspected the tiny space before going in. He was grinning all the way down and trying to find out what the buttons would do. She had to smack his hand away before giving him a short explanation.

“Can we go again later?” He quickly pulled a note and a pen out of thin air and wrote down ELEVATOR, to remember what to search for online later, when they got back.

“When we get home.” She groaned and dragged him outside. “And don’t do that stuff in public either, keep it in your pocket like a normal person.”

She REALLY hoped this would somehow go smoothly, she really did…

 

April was very tired by the time they got close to the area they were supposed to look around in, so many unnecessary stops, so many questions. They ended up taking the bus because it would just be faster than walking down the street and stop for every single thing.

“No more stops, or we won’t get there until it’s too dark.” April scolded him while the bus drove along the street.

“Sorry…” Donnie slumped a bit in his seat, he had gotten a bit over excited and side tracked them more than he should have. “I’m just really curious, and I’ve missed being able to walk around and see stuff..”

April sighted. “I get it, don’t guilt trip me, but if you can’t concentrate it’d probably be better if you didn’t tag along.”

“No, I’ll behave, promise! I’ll try keep it to a minimum, besides it would be bad if you travelled alone..” he said pleadingly, he did not want to be stuck in that apartment all day every day, internet or not it was a lot more fun seeing things first hand, not just through pictures.

“I am not some defenceless girl, I’ll have you know I go to karate.” She said stubbornly, she knew what he meant, but it felt like he was saying it because she was a girl.

“I did not mean that, I’m sure you can hold your own.. it’s just better with company, you know?” He tried to smile at her, for the past while it felt like they had clashed quite a bit. But he supposed they still had to get used to each other’s company, as well as social rules. April was very particular about them in public, it turns out.

“Alright, I’ll try not to side track, and you try not to scold me for every single thing I don’t know about? How’s that?” Putting it like that April did feel like she was being a bit unfair. It wasn’t exactly his fault he didn’t know how to act or what things were.

“Yea you’re right.. sorry. I was out of line, stress is no excuse. I shouldn’t have been so annoyed at you for not knowing... friends?” She held out a hand and he gladly took it and grinned. “Friends. Now let’s go get your dad.”

She smiled at that. “Ah, here’s our stop! We’re off!” They quickly got off, and she tried not to feel awkward when Don thanked and waved at the bus driver.

“Okay, so... a guy in this building on the second floor disappeared, my dad went to a client here sometimes. I suppose we could ask the missing guy’s neighbours if they know anything about why he’s gone?” She pointed at a square building with apartments just to the left across the road.

“Sounds good!”

Once inside they found the apartment, looking around there were five others in the same corridor. April was just about to go through what they should ask them when Donnie simply walked up and knocked on one of the doors.

“!” She hurried to stand beside him. “I wasn’t ready..” She whispered, but tried her best to smile and not panic as the door opened.

“Oh hi there! We just wanted to ask some questions about-“

“No. Not interested.” The door slammed in their faces. 

“…. That went well.” Great, maybe they should start with saying they aren’t door sellers. Donnie stared at the door, then looked curiously down at April.

“Did we do something wrong…?”

“No… they probably thought we wanted to sell them something, hold on.” She knocked again. The door flew open and the angry man did not seem to be in a talkative mood.

“I SAID I don’t want any!”

“We’re not sellers..!” April quickly interrupted.

“Then what are ya? Don’t you kids have anything better to do?!” The grumpy man eyed them and huffed in annoyance. April was getting ready to argue when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

“I’m very sorry for disturbing your evening, what me and my friend actually wanted was to ask if you happened to know anything about the guy who disappeared, he lived in room 23B?”

The man seemed a bit taken aback by the sudden politeness, April quickly mimicked Don’s smile and nodded. “That’s right, we could REALLY use some help, so do you know anything…?”

“Oh.. huh. Well.. I didn’t know the guy. Really. He was always moping around on his own, didn’t really talk to people. But I bet he owed someone money or somethin’, it’s always about money these days.” He shrugged. “Is all I know.”

“That’s alright, thank you very much for your help.” April awkwardly mimicked the turtles polite bow, the guy looked almost confused as he closed the door.

“See? Politeness gets you further than arguing. If you’re nice they are more likely to help. It’s especially important when they are angry. Those people are looking for a fight and they don’t expect you to be nice in return.” He almost looked smug when he said that.

“Yea, yea, enlighten me with your wisdom.” April said half-jokingly and gave him an elbow nudge. “But thanks though, let’s try the next door.”

The next one was a rather large family, as they asked around, it seemed like no one really knew him, like the first guy had said. But apparently, he had had a visitor not long before he disappeared, and they had argued. 

One old fox woman in particular remembered because she had complained when they had scared her cats. She didn’t know what they had argued about, but it was some tough looking guy, she’d said it was probably a street thug or something.

 

“This is sounding more and more like this guy just made someone angry and got caught up in things... I’m pretty sure my dad wouldn’t do that.”

“Well, this one might be a dead end, or not. Let’s keep our eyes open and see if we can find out more by the next place?”

They made their way back to the bus stop, by now it was raining and getting darker.

 

 

 

“Maybe we should call it quits soon, we could always check it out tomorrow” April suggested as they walked along the street, the second place hadn’t really given anything.

People had mostly slammed doors in their faces no matter what they tried, some of them had said pretty racist things too. A bad neighbourhood with snobby humans, those areas were still around it seemed. Some modern society.

“Next one might not be as bad?” Donatello suggested.

“Yea.. maybe…” Suddenly she was pushed to the side, nearly going down, if she hadn’t grabbed the lamppost in time.

“Watch it..!” She turned around to scold whoever had run into them, only to realise it was on purpose. The guy had pushed her and was currently trying to steal one of the turtle’s hoops, trying being the key word here.

“Woah stop pulling! They won’t come off!” The turtle yelped as he was tugged sideways by the frantic thief. April quickly jumped in and stepped on his foot, when he let go and tried to hit her she grabbed his arm and twisted him around, bringing her knee straight into his belly, then letting go with a push.

“Are you alright??” She looked at her companion and jumped away slightly from the man now going down.

“Yea I’m fine, just… surprised. Uh… April?” Her friend suddenly backed up a bit, turning she saw the robber suddenly had a friend, some kind of wolf mutant… with a knife. She swallowed thickly and readied her stance, no panic, she had trained for these situations. 

Which by far didn’t make them any less scary.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And it's finally here! It's a bit rushed so sorry for any mistakes, do point them out if you find them! =) Also sorry for the delay, had a lot of school work and just had this chapter sitting half finished for weeks due to that. Happy easter everyone! 
> 
> I struggled with some parts of this one and had to adjust multiple times, but now I just feel like I'll run with this as is and if I really gotta change something I can do that adjustment afterwards.

April took a deep breath, watching the mutant’s movements.

He was focusing solely on her now as the immediate threat. She watched the knife as he moved towards her. That was a problem, she needed to disarm-

“Don!” She barely had time before the turtle suddenly jumped in front of her, the wolf must have jumped at the same time because suddenly he was flying to the side, knife clinking down on the wet stone.

“Are you crazy?!” She wasn’t sure how good the turtle was in a fight, but he certainly didn’t look like a fighter, even if he probably was stronger than her simply for being a mutant. “You could’ve been stabbed!”

“So could you! And I have a shell! Now run!” He grabbed her by the arm and started running, she stumbled forward before getting her footing back. She dared a glance backwards, the wolf was on his feet chasing them.

“You’re a turtle! How are we gonna outrun a wolf..!” She could feel the panic, oh she should have grabbed that knife…

“That’s just a stereotype! Less talking, more running!” Suddenly she wasn’t running on her own anymore, Donnie pulled her in and lifted her up and kept running, he had stamina that’s for sure.

“Get someplace crowded!” She quickly wished they hadn’t walked into this neighbourhood, it had seemed rather empty and creepy to begin with anyway. 

“Turn left!” Don turned and ran around the corner into an alley with bins and dumpsters.

“Left?!” He quickly turned to run back, but it was too late, the wolf was right behind them and had now stopped as they had come upon a dead end. He panted from the running and took a firm hold on his knife.

Don quickly took April and ran behind one of the dumpsters, slowly letting her down to the ground again.

“What do we do now??”

"Well I don't-"

“Heh, nowhere to run~ Now give me that gold!”

Donnie glanced around the corner of the dumpster. “I’d love to... but I can’t. Uhm.. how about this pencil instead..? It’s got a really nice gold text.” He carefully held it out.

The wolf snorted. “Funny. You’re handing it over or you can say goodbye to your lives.”

 

April was panicking, she pressed herself against the dumpster’s side and tried not to hyperventilate, they were trapped. There was nowhere to run, and either they had to take the wolf down or they’d.. well they’d die. 

“What do we do… what do we…” She glanced around, maybe if they climbed atop the container..? But where would they go then? Sit there and call the cops? But if they could get up the wolf would probably be able to with ease.

“April you need to calm down!” Don suddenly whispered harshly.  
“But we’re trapped..!”

“No, well yes but… If you do exactly as I say, we’re not.”

April was scared, and confused. “Do you have a plan..?”

“Sort of, I’ll distract him while you take the ring, place it on your right index finger and wish for us to be somewhere else, alright?”

“.. What? How does that-“

“Just do it!” Don then peered around the corner, only to find the wolf walking in on them.

“Wait! Okay! You can have it! Just… don’t harm us!” he stepped out and held his hands up, then he gave April a look and glanced down to her pocket.

“…” She stared at him for a moment before she decided to just try it. Worst case maybe at least Don could escape by hiding in the ring.

While April hopefully follows his instructions he started talking again as he had made the wolf paus at least.

“That’s more like it.”

“Okay.. just.. let me take it off.. it’s.. reaaaally stuck on tight and-“ He jumped when the wolf hissed at him to hurry up. He pretended to start taking it off and looked nervously towards April.

She put the ring on, not really sure what to expect, except maybe soon death.

“Okay uhm.. I wish we were somewhere else?”  
“As you wish!”

Suddenly the turtle jumped back behind the container, the mutant rushed after, but when he got around the corner... it was empty. He looked around in confusion.

 

\---------------------------------------------

 

“… WHERE are we?!” April found herself sitting down on the side of an escalator, a shopping mall. “How did? Why are we? What happened?? ” She grabbed Donnie by the shoulders and shook him. 

“Okay calm down M-“

“Wait.. did the ring TELEPORT us?!” She quickly grabbed it and pulled it off as if it was on fire, in case it would do it again.

“Well, not really. And I don’t know where we are! You tell me… It was you who wanted us to come here. You weren’t specific so we ended up with whatever place you happened to think of!”

April paused, she carefully looked around them. She did recognise this place. This was where she and her dad had gone for a shopping trip a few weeks ago, they were right outside the café they had stopped at. “Oh. I know where we are.”

“That’s great cause I got no clue.” He carefully got up and helped April to her feet. “Are you alright...?”

“But..”

“I told you I could use magic, no? And I also told you everything at once would be a bit much so…”

“Yea, okay… got it. Whew.. we almost got.. well.. yea..” This was way too much action for her taste.

“Let’s go home.” She could deal with it there, not in a shopping mall. “And the normal way, no more weird magic stuff.” She added, she wanted a normal bus ride and a normal walk home. No surprise teleportations or criminals.

 

\--------------------------------------

Raph tried not to yawn, he was having the most boring time of all the boring times in history, ever. Company meeting about the future… should have been at least a little bit exciting, but no. These geezers just wouldn’t shut up. They just kept bickering, at least when Raph did it he got things done, this was going nowhere. He played a little with a pencil as three of them argued about who’s idea was the better course of action and who to pick among the potential sponsors, not even considering if Raph liked any of them. He sighted, that did it.

“Enough!” He interrupted them and swept his pencil at his glass to get their attention, trying not to break it. A crack, crap, well could be worse.

“This is getting us nowhere.”  
“But-“ 

“If he could just see-“ 

He was met with protests and he wanted none of it.

“No. No buts! I want you to list the pros and cons of your suggestions, and consult with our finance and planning teams about them, list their demands should we be interested and then we’ll have a meeting tomorrow afternoon about it. To that I’ll listen, not to this meaningless bicker just taking up my time!” He huffed, and contained a smile at their surprised expressions.

They stared at him in a short moment of silence, hah. If they thought they’d be able to just walk all over him, they were wrong. He was not going to play their games, and he sure as shell wasn’t going to tolerate it as much as Leo had.

“Very well.” They all agreed, Raph could practically see Leo’s surprised face, who would have thought? Raphael actually made a pretty good boss.

 

\------------------

 

“That was..”

“Yea..” April could feel her adrenaline kick starting to wear off as she closed the door to her dad’s apartment.

“I’ll.. go make us something.” She said quietly, she could feel her legs shake a bit as she walked. While they were safe and sound, she couldn’t help but feel rather shaken up by the whole thing. 

She got to the kitchen and started preparing some snacks and.. anything to eat to get the shaking and chock out of her system. She put her phone on the table as she got a bag of popcorn and stuffed it in the microwave. Checking her phone as she waited.

“Oh.” She had a text from Irma, must have sent it while they were running for their lives. Cheers.

_Hey April! I did some research, and I think it might be a Genie.. or some evil spirit. But the clothing seems mostly typical for a Genie, but it doesn’t say anything about rings, not sure about ghosts but they can possess objects, according to the book at least. Be careful and don’t sell your soul or anything, alright? We don’t know what consequences it can cause if this really is real, and not some elaborate joke to get me to do extra work._

She looked at it, oh she had a slight clue, he could teleport people. And the last bit irked her, she wouldn’t lie like that! Not.. that she would believe Irma if it had been the other way around.. probably. Okay it was kind of unfair to expect her to just believe her straight away. She typed in a reply.

_Hey Irm! I think you might be onto something! I’ll try see if I can find more evidence.. I promise it’s not! ಥ_ಥ I can show you the ring later to prove it! And thanks a lot, I owe you lunch! (◕‿◕✿)_

 

“… Are you a genie?” April decided to ask straight forward as she put down their cups of tea and a bowl of popcorn on the table, then sat down in the couch.

Donnie paused and stared wide eyed at her, looking rather surprised. “.. Well.. I… Yea?” He couldn’t really say no without lying, so might as well..

“Huh.” She sat quiet for a little while. “Do you grant wishes and stuff as well..?”

Donnie was feeling slightly uncomfortable. “Yea kinda. Not anything though, there are rules. But the uhm.. teleport was a wish so…” He scratched his neck and wasn’t sure how to start.

“Does this mean I could have wished for my dad to come back to the apartment from the beginning?” Was the very first question that hit her, she looked expectantly at Donnie.

“No.”

“Good, cause then I’d hit you. Though... why not?” She raised an eyebrow, not really sure what to make of it all.

“Well, I said there are rules, when it comes to yourself though, it’s easier. You can wish for pretty much anything, well except to be dead and stuff, for safety reasons. But when it comes to affecting other people.. it’s very strict. You can’t wish harm or death upon others, or change their emotions… you can wish for things to indirectly affect people, but not direct and harmful things. That includes teleporting people. So you wouldn’t be able to wish for your dad to appear in the apartment… Sorry.”

“Oh.. that’s okay. Or well I wish I could but.. I guess that doesn’t work either?” 

“Heh, no.” He chuckled a little as he started to eat from the popcorn bowl. “Oh these are good!”

April smiled a bit, trying to think through what to ask next, this was a very weird development…

“Does this mean I only have two wishes left or something?”

“Oh no, that’s a myth, you have as many as you want. Though I’m also not as powerful as the ones in those stories.. but you can still abuse it quite a bit and accidentally cause a lot of harm, so be careful.”

“Oh…” She looked at the ring on the table. Maybe she should try something… just something simple.

“Then.. I wish for a cup of hot chocolate?”

Nothing happened though.

“It doesn’t really work that way, I can only grant my master’s wishes.” He explained as he munched on some more popcorn.  
“And I’m not?” 

“Hah, no. Right now I don’t have a master, and I’d prefer it that way~ It’s so stiff to have one.” He said gingerly as he threw a popcorn in his mouth.  
April blew her cheeks up and huffed. “But how does it work? Is there something you gotta say or-“ 

“No. It’s real simple, it’s a ring. Think about it.”

April thought about it for a very short moment. “Oh. So, whoever wears the ring.”

“Bingo! You were my master for all of a few seconds, but when you took it off you weren’t anymore. It’s pretty straight forward.”  
“I see..” She gave the ring a look, pondering if she should give it a try or not, she wasn’t entirely sure though. “So… what’s the difference? When you wear it.”

“Well, whenever you say ‘I wish’ and something within the rules, it happens. I can’t really stop you if you say something by accident though. That happens by the way, trust me. It’s also dangerous to wish for unknown things. The more specific you are the better. We were lucky we didn’t end up on the bottom of the ocean or worse last time.”

“Oh.. well, I get why you wouldn’t want to walk around with the ring on you at all times.”

“It’s not only that but, yea, kinda. People forget and they accidentally say something, when they are mad or otherwise, and stuff happens.” He shrugged and sipped from his tea.

“Hmm.. can I try it…? Please~?” She looked pleadingly at him, Donnie seemed to find that amusing.

“It’s really not for me to decide, do it if you want to. Just think about what you say though.”

April lined the ring up to her finger, inspecting it a bit before carefully putting it on, she watched as it adjusted its size to her finger, she had been too scared last time to notice. “Oh.”

“Okay so… I just..?” She took a deep breath, it wasn’t like she was just going to accidentally blurt something bad out, like flooding the apartment... but she was still nervous.

“Yes, anything you want, within the rules.” He looked at her and waited.

“Then I wish for a cup of hot chocolate?”

“As you wish.” Then he snapped his fingers and it appeared. April jumped.

“It’s there! It’s right there! On the TABLE!” she gaped at it, it really worked. “It worked!”

“This is so cool!” She wasn’t sure what she wanted to do with this, she carefully poked the cup, it was real alright. She took it and carefully took a sip. Don looked at her in amusement.

“This is really tasty~” She happily drank from it, then carefully put it back down.

“This doesn’t seem too bad as long as you think about what you wish for? Okay how about you say something you want and I can wish for it~?” She looked at him, only to find him giving her an uncertain look, like he was trying to think of what to say, or how to say it.

“I.. hrm. I can’t really tell you directly what to wish for master, that is entirely up to you. Oh but I can give you advice.” He shrugged apologetically and grimaced a little over his wording.

April felt slightly put off by the way he was calling her. “Don’t call me that, that’s actually really awkward. We’re friends not.. well.. I’m not your actual master you know? Just April is fine.”

“Sorry master, tried. But I can’t, rules. I told you it’s a bit stiff. And right now, you are actually my master, you know.” He pointed out. April quickly took the ring off.

“Nope.” She put it square on the table. “Okay now I can see why you don’t like it.”

“Sorry April, I tried to get around it, guess I couldn’t. I mean it’s not so bad but.. it gets a bit… weird if it’s a friend. Cause I can’t not call you master, which as I said gets kinda stiff pretty fast, to be honest. But don’t worry about it. You can just take it on and off if it bothers you?” He smiled at her.

“Aaand if I were you I’d wish for a delicious dinner, by the way, just a suggestion~” He winked at her. She laughed a little.

“Alright, wear ring when wishing, otherwise don’t. Check. What would you like to… ‘recommend’ for dinner?” She could see his excitement flare up in an instant.

“What kind of food do you have in this century??” 

 

\-----------------------------------------

 

Mikey sighted as he leaned over the couch, checking his list for names.

“Hmm.. That one maybe?” He checked the laptop to see what address the guy lived at, only to find he was ‘missing’, he frowned, that was weird..

“Okaaay. This one then~!” he checked the database for a guy named Kirby, apparently also marked missing from the police. “This shouldn’t.. this is weird.” He skimmed through the news, they didn’t include anything but the first name in those.. but checking it up more thoroughly, well.. more like looking in a database he really shouldn’t have access to.

He found a few of them were named O’neil. At least enough of them to be noticeable if you paid attention to that in particular. Quite a few missing were also named James.. he figured that was just a coincidence though, must be an unlucky name.

“This can’t be a coincidence..? Oh man this might be bad…” He pondered if he should call Leo, though it was early in the morning and he was probably out tracking right now, and he had said not to call in case he got spotted. Not that it was Mikey’s fault Leo forgot the ringtone on most of the time, technology just didn’t seem to agree with Leo. He decided to text him instead, just to be on the safe side.

_Uh Leo? I figured you might wanna know this, but at least five people who’s currently marked missing is named O’neil._

_What are you doing, working this early?? Nevermind, are you sure?_

_That’s not really the point.. also sometimes I do! I’m not like Raph. Anyway, yea it’s from the police reports so, pretty sure I’m sure._

_Shit_

Oh that was a keeper, he’d show Raph later. It was nearly a swear word, well, for Leo it counted as one.

_Don’t tell Raph yet, he has an important meeting today, but we’ll clue him in when he’s done._

Mikey stretched a little, now that he got something done, he’d earned himself a snack.

“~~” Whistling as he walked into the kitchen to grab something he saw a purple light reflect of off the microwave. “Huh.. that’s funny it almost looks like..” He paused, and glanced down at his necklace.

Mikey usually didn’t wear a lot, he preferred to keep it simple, a belt to keep his gear and phone in place, some protection and pads when needed, an occasional bathrobe. But he also wore a necklace with feathers and wooden beads, the middle bead had a tiny purple crystal, and it was glowing.  
“Holy- It’s..!” He could barely contain his excited cheer, it hadn’t done that in a long time. He quickly grabbed his phone, calling Leo. Screw it if he got prickly about it, his own fault anyway for not keeping it on vibrate.

 

\----------------------------------

 

The following day…

April groaned as she woke up to her alarm, she sluggishly forced herself to sit up, yawning.

“Already..?” She forced one leg over the edge of the bed at a time, then stood up. After she was dressed she slowly made her way to the kitchen, pausing in the living room as she saw her new guest curled up on the couch, still sleeping.

“Right.. maybe I should leave a note..” She had school and she forgot to tell him that. After making some breakfast she packed her bag and wrote a quick note, looking around she decided to put it on the table beside the sofa. There were still some leftovers from when they tried a lot of different foods.. She added a question if he could clean up once he was awake.

“There, perfect.” As she was about to leave she caught sight of the ring on the table, she paused. Maybe she shouldn’t leave it in plain sight? What if someone broke in? It didn’t happen often but.. thinking about it she got a bit nervous, maybe it was best to have it on her, just so she knew it was safe?

“Oh my god I’m running late..!” She spotted the time, quickly took the ring and put it safely in her inner pocket before rushing out the door to catch the bus to school.

 

April groaned, she was too tired for this and she had been up way too late, as she picked up her phone to check the time she felt the ring in her pocket, right. She should probably show it to Irma today, or she would never shut up about it. Ten to eleven, still time for a short breather then before class.

“~” She walked out and stretched, the weather was actually really good today and the sun felt nice. Then she paused. She was sure she heard something, looking around there wasn’t really anyone there.

“….” Then she saw it and froze, she stared at a familiar feather poking out from behind one of the playground structures, a figure darted out from there and hid behind the corner of the main building, oh no he didn’t.

She stomped off and rounded the corner, finding Donatello there, trying to hide.

“WHAT are you doing here?! I thought I left you sleeping in the apartment, how did you find this place??” April was baffled, how did he even? “Did you stalk me here?”

“You did, and no, I did not! I did not know where your school was in the slightest nor did I follow you! Remember how I told you to bring the ring yesterday when we went out?”

“Yea?” She crossed her arms, waiting for an explanation.

“That was because I have a limited range.” 

“Limited range?” She said sceptically.

“Yes. Let me explain.” He took a stick and drew in the ground. “This dot is the ring.” Then he drew a circle around it. “And this is the range. I can be anywhere within this range, but I can’t step outside it, if I try, it’s like hitting an invisible wall. And if the ring moves, so does the range.”

“Oh. So when I left with the ring...” 

“You dragged me here.” He finished. “It was quite a rude way to wake up, let me tell you. And it’s been a nightmare trying to not be seen.”

“I’m really sorry... I … I didn’t know.” She scratched her neck, well this was a problem.

“But you can’t be here… only students and teachers are allowed! Otherwise I need to get permission to bring people… and that needs at least a week’s notice.” She facepalmed.

“It’s okay, I should have explained that. And well.. I’m here, and I can’t leave either.”

April bit her lip, how to solve this.. he couldn’t stay but because the ring was here he couldn’t leave… and she didn’t have time for a quick visit home.. The ring was the problem.. then she suddenly realised it might also be the solution. “How.. about you just hide in the ring?” 

“.. I don’t want to.” He turned his back on her and pouted, crossing his arms.

“But you can’t let anyone see you! Besides it’s the best hiding place… where else would you hide?” She sighted as Donnie stubbornly didn’t want to. Then she smiled.

“… You can still hear everything from in there though, can’t you~?”

“Well yea? What of it?” Donnie looked suspiciously at her, he wasn’t sure what that tone meant.

“Well.. I was just thinking.. since you’re here and all… maybe you’d want to come with me to class? If you could hear everything you’d practically listen to the whole lesson. My next class is physics.” 

“…. Really?” He suddenly looked a bit excited, but then he hesitated.

April could tell he was at war with himself on whether he wanted to or not. She watched as he started walking around and contemplate her offer.

“You got one minute.” She tapped her foot and held the ring out as she waited.

Don looked nervously from the ring to April, to the school building. Oh he really wanted to... but being in the ring sucked… but he wanted to… but he didn’t…

“Donnie.”

“I’m thinking..!” He phased back and forth, struggling with making up his mind.

“I think we’re gonna go through how electricity works today..” April said thoughtfully.

“!” That settled it, he quickly returned to the ring before he could change his mind again.

“There you go~ I promise I’ll let you out later.” Then she was off for class, relieved to have that sorted without too much trouble.  
She barely made in on time and sat down, sighting.

“There you are, I thought you were gonna be a no show.” The girl beside her said in a snappy but unintentionally annoyed tone, adjusting her glasses.

Oh right, Irma was in her physics class too, and she had a promise to keep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter might or might not be starting on the backstory! Kinda depends because chapter 4 is just getting longer and longer! I had a scene planned for chapter three, but it had to be pushed to chapter 4 as I write bits and pieces where I get the ideas. So sometimes I add stuff to later chapters as well, unsure if they'll be there or get pushed to the next chapter as more stuff is added! I hope you liked it anyways!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I suck at summaries, stuff happens, a lot of stuff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omg this got out way later than I thought it would, so sorry for the wait!
> 
> On a happy note I graduated this summer with really high marks! So all that hard work paid off! Unfortunately it meant this was put on hold, then I had an exhibition ( cause art school and stuff). Then I had to deal with moving out of my student living and chaos around that. I've only been home for about a week. I'm a rather slow writer to begin with so it took a while to get this thing together! It's at least longer than any of the previous ones, twice as long actually!

"Okay, this way!” Irma pulled on April’s arm until they rounded a corner. “Here should be fine!”

April looked around, it was a nearly empty alley, good as any. They had agreed to go someplace empty so April could show her, after all, seeing is believing.

“Okay, so, don’t freak out or anything.” 

“I told you, I’m fine.” She raised an eyebrow and tapped her fingers. April sighed.

“Okay, okay, let’s get this over with. You’re buying us ice cream if you do freak out. By the way.” She warned and rubbed at the little ring to get Don out of there, she was pretty sure that was the way to do it.

 

“FINALLY! Freeduhhmmff..!” Donnie nearly yelled when he was released, only to have Aprils hands clamp over his mouth.

“Schhh! Do you have to yell across the whole neighbourhood?!” She carefully released her hands.

“Yes, I do.” He replied with a hint of sarcasm. “Oh hi, I’m Donatello, and I know you, sort of. You’re Irma. You really shouldn’t tap at the ring so much, it’s noisy.” He complained slightly and held out his hand in a proper greeting.

“… This is how you greet, right?” He looked at April for confirmation when Irma just stood there unmoving.

“I SO called it! I told you, I told you and you still freaked! And.. gosh, do you need to sit down?” April went to Irma’s side and helped her sit down on the pavement after dumping her rug sack there to sit on.

Talking about it and telling was definitely not the same as showing for real. Irma had kept a sense of scepticism throughout the whole ordeal and wasn’t really sure if April was onto some REALLY elaborate joke or not. Apparently not. This was the real deal, and why…

“Why… is he wearing your dad’s ugly coat?” 

“… That’s your first question...? Really? You okay though?” 

“I’m.. uh.. just a bit dizzy, I’ll be okay. Why though?”

“To make him blend in more? There wasn’t really anything else and the whole turban outfit made us look like we were going to some fancy dress party…”

“April, it’s your dad’s coat, he looks like he couldn’t decide if he wanted to be a detective or some weird eccentric rich guy.”

April hid her face in the palm of her hand and sighed. “.. I know.. I know.. But it was better than.. the masquerade thing.”

Donnie looked in confusion between the two, not sure why his attire was such a big topic. He saw that other mutant walking out in a fluffy robe and some slippers, that was apparently more acceptable than anything HE was wearing. He huffed.

“I already told you-“

“I know, the bling doesn’t come off. I know.” April interrupted, getting used to that argument by now.

“See my problem here? Anyway, you owe us ice cream.” She smirked a little at that.

“Fine, but.. uh.. if everything you said is true... why don’t you just wish for money or something? That would like.. solve all our problems, ever.”

“No..! Bad idea, very.. very bad idea!” Don jumped in. “People are gonna start wondering where you get the money from, and you’ll just end up in trouble... that’s how it always goes.”

“It’s just small change.” Irma argued. “Common I wanna see how it works..!” 

“That’s just it, it always starts small, then it gets worse and worse.. trust me it’s a bad habit.” 

April looked torn between the two, she did want to show Irma but… perhaps money was a bad idea? Though it was so little... no one would question it. She could wish for ice cream but, she had discovered that wished food and the real thing was just not exactly the same, at least when it came to certain foods, the real thing was slightly better. Not like a bit of change would harm anyone.

“Okay, I promise it will only be this single one time, okay? Just to show Irma, after that 100% absolutely no more wishing of that kind. Pleeease?” April gave him her puppy dog eyes she usually gave her dad when she really wanted something.

Donnie sighted. “… I’m not your parent, but I warned you, so not my fault if this de-rails.” He gave a her a warning look. April was a nice girl, but he knew even nice people can think, ‘just this once’, and then just keep going.. and before they realise it’s out of control.

“Got it, here goes.” She carefully put the ring on, Irma rolled her eyes and waited when she was making a show of it. “I wish I had some pocket money for 3 ice creams and some arcade games!”

“I’d probably be more specific but.. done.” *Snapping his fingers a few dollar bills appeared in April’s hand.

“See? It works.” April grinned from ear to ear at Irma, just enjoying her gaping face and reaction.

“My god April, I wish I stumbled upon a magic ring like that.. would’ve been real useful a couple years ago.” She commented and got up from the rug sack. “Soo... arcades huh?”

“Well, thought we could do something fun, besides... Donnie’s never tried it. We have to introduce him to the ways of button mashing!” She smirked, while Donatello just looked puzzled.

“What’s button mashing?”

 

A few hours later…

“That… was amazing..” He had to say technology truly was the best thing ever. Period. You couldn’t wish for something as amazing as this, you had to invent it. It was beyond cool.

As they walked away, they didn’t notice the shadowy figure hiding just a short distance across the street.

“Hey it’s me, I found them. …Yea I’m sure they’re the ones asking around. No they’re just playing at the arcade. I’m sure.” He huffed.

“Seriously?! I have better things to do than tailing kids..! … yes. Yes, sorry.. I meant no disrespect. I’ll keep that in mind.. bye.” After hanging up he banged his fist into the wall and growled, before disappearing off along the streets full of people milling about their daily lives.

 

For the next few days April hung out with Irma a lot more than usual, she hadn’t had this much fun since her dad disappeared. 

 

\----------------------------------------------------------

 

Raphael sat on his balcony at the office taking a smoke, ever since Mikey’s necklace had started to act up, which was a pretty good indication the ring, or at least a powerful artefact, was active. They had doubled their efforts in finding their missing brother. 

He was getting tired of their cowardly enemies as well, why couldn’t they just show up so he could smash them? They were too afraid to face him, that’s what. They had a talk this morning, and it was agreed upon that since the ring might be active, O’Neil’s going missing and the increased criminal rates were probably not a coincidence, they were all connected somehow.

He just wasn’t sure if the enemy already had it or not, he really hoped they didn’t. The office guys were really annoying to deal with too, downright excruciating. He just wanted to take their silly ties and strangle them. Ass lickers the lot of them.

He sighed long and deep, Mikey really wasn’t cut out for this, he hoped he didn’t have to take on the job. Leo would go nuts and Mikey would most likely suffocate in the strict schedule.

In his opinion, not that he would tell his brother, he thought it wasn’t fair to ask that of him, not after Leo’s last stunt. Sure it was a couple of hundred years ago now, and technically though it was Leo’s order, Raph had insisted on being the one to do it. He remembered it like it was yesterday.

_He walked into the house, Mikey grabbed him by the arm and looked pleadingly at him in tears._

_“Please Raph.. please.. don’t. Leo’s wrong! Everything’s gonna be fine.. it’ll be fine.. I promise..”_

_He wanted to believe Mikey, he really did. But he could also sense the logic in Leo’s reasoning, he truly hated it, but he was right. This was the only way._

_“I’m sorry Mikey, I really am. For what it’s worth.. I know how you feel…” Then he pushed him to the side, taking the artefact he had brought with him, a bracelet, and erased Mikey’s wife and children’s memory of all of them forever._

_Mikey’s cries and sobs had haunted him for a long time, but he knew they had to do it. Mikey wouldn’t age, and he couldn’t stay much longer without them noticing. And even if they knew, they had enemies. And he couldn’t watch Mikey go through what he had, watching his girlfriend slowly age and fade away, it was too painful, even after 40 years. It was better to let go. Mikey had known that from the start, though it didn’t hurt any less._

They had been at odds for a long time after that, but time slowly took its course, and they always ended up coming back to each other, it was all they really had after all. After those incidents though Raph and Mikey had taken Leo’s incentive and not gotten too close to anyone anymore. It sucked, but he understood why Leo hadn’t done it, why he himself didn’t anymore.

But finding Donnie could change all that, it was their one shot at having a normal life, a life both he and Mikey had craved so badly, especially now… with mutants getting more accepted as the years dwindled by. He wanted to be a part of that, he wanted to see Mikey being a part of that. 

He missed Donnie. Leo… actually he was pretty hard to read these days, he wasn’t exactly sure what he wanted, except to achieve their goals.

\----------------------------------------------------------

April stretched a little and yawned, it was dinner time soon, they had found a few clues. Someone had claimed to see a nervous guy with some orange hair, it sounded like her dad. He was with some weird looking guys dressed in black, though it wasn’t suits, apparently. But their witness was just plain terrible at describing their outfits, and kept changing details, April sighed.

Donatello gave her a sympathetic pat on the back.

“Don’t worry, we’ll find him. At least we have a lead, maybe. These guys seem to be some sort of group….”

“Maybe this is as far as we’re ever gonna get?” She looked tired.

“Well.. we’ll find out who they are. For now.. Hmm how about.. we get Irma, and do something nice? We could go to one of those… things you wanted to show me… the Cin.. something.” 

“Cinema?”

Don snapped his fingers and smiled. “Yea that one! And.. maybe wish something to cheer you up? A little something in this case isn’t so bad, just.. not too visible you know?”

April smiled, she could see his attempts at cheering her up, though nothing would work quite as well as bringing her dad back, it was at least a good attempt, and she knew how much he was against using wishes. She gave a small smile.

“Thanks, I think I’d like that.” She put the ring on the finger and thought about what she wanted.. something simple.. maybe an umbrella would actually not be a bad idea..

“GIVE ME THAT!”

They froze, April glanced from where the sound was coming from. Right there, in the parking lot by one of the cars, there was a robbery going on.

“Oh my-“ She felt both relived and scared at the same time. It wasn’t meant for them, but oh my god there was a robbery going on! “We.. we need to call the cops..!” April dove down behind a car and brought her phone out. 

“Come on.. hello! There.. there is a robbery going on..! Where? Uh it’s in a parking lot uh..” April looked around to try find a name, anything. She didn’t exactly keep track of parking lots and close by streets.

“One sec!” She carefully peeked up.

“There is uh.. Oh I wish this was the mall instead that would have been easier to just say the mall.” She muttered. Her eyes went huge.

“Master..!” Came Donnie’s panicked voice a second later. She dropped the phone.

“I TAKE THAT BACK! DON’T!” April tackled Donnie but it was already too late, by the time they hit the floor, well, they were in the mall.

“Oh my god what did I do?!” She quickly ripped the ring off and put it away, getting up trying to act natural as she took her phone and ended the call. “Did we teleport..?”

“No.. worse..” Donnie carefully got up on shaky legs. “We teleported the mall..”

They looked around, the mall was nearly empty, except for the people who had been in the parking lot. “Oh my god.. We have to-“ She paused as she heard a yelp.

The person doing the robbery had dropped her victim and looked around in confusion, no longer hidden by the cars, she started to run away. She wasn’t the only one starting to freak out.

“April we should leave…” 

“Right.” They bolted for the exit, before people could come around and ask questions. April nearly ran into another mutant who was just as puzzled by the move.

“Oh sorry I wasn’t-“ She looked up and paused, the mutant she had run into was a wolf, and not just any wolf, a very familiar one at that. “Oh.. What are- Uhm.. hey.. we were just.. we’re gonna go now..!”

Don quickly yanked April away from the brute and started running the other way. They had to get out of here, hopefully he wouldn’t chase them. A criminal would hardly want to stay and get questioned when people arrived to find out what had happened.

Unsure if they were pursued he darted in through a door to hide once they rounded the second corner, the bathroom. They both tried to catch their breath before being able to speak.

“That was..” 

“Yea the guy who tried to rob us... what’s he doing here?” April gasped out between breaths.

“He.. he must have been at that parking lot…”

“You don’t think..?”

“He was tailing us? I don’t know, it’s possible. But it could be a coincidence.”

“Well I don’t want to be here in case that wolf is around.” April stated, no one was in there either, she quickly got the ring on. “I wish we were home in the apartment.” 

 

With a poof, they were standing in the hallway. They stared at one another for a short moment.

“HOLY SHIT what are we gonna do?!”

“Well this is just a fine mess..! I.. I need to sit down, I think I’m gonna have an early death..” Donnie mumbled vaguely and slowly walked into the living room, snapping his coat into non-existence as he was trying to calm down. April dumped her stuff in that general direction on her way to the bathroom.

“I’m gonna hit the shower.. I need to not freak out right now, be back in a sec..” With that she went inside and closed the door.

She let out a harsh breath and slowly moved to the shower, taking off one clothing at a time, focusing on nothing but the shower for a moment.

“Okaay..” She felt numb as she entered the shower, did they really just? Did she actually? It felt unreal, this was a huge thing. There was no way no one would notice.. 

“Don’t freak out.. at.. at least we stopped the robbery...”

She worked the soap slowly into the skin while relaxing in the hot water of the shower. Trying not to think about the whole thing right now, or if they had actually nearly been attacked again.. and.. no! Don’t think about it…

Donnie was slowly freaking out, he phased back and forth trying to figure out how they could repair this. Of course they could undo it.. but erasing the memories of it happening was another thing altogether, and he was pretty sure that was against the rules regardless. Maybe people where to sceptical in this time to realise what it actually was?

“We are in so much trouble... I hope they won’t figure out- ..??” He paused, there was a distinct sound coming from April’s bag, he’d heard it before. Carefully he walked over to the bag, would April mind if he..? Carefully he opened the bag and took out the device he’d seen April use a few times.

“April? Your uh… portable communications device is making sounds!” 

“….”

No answer, maybe he could..? What if it was her dad or something. He carefully mimicked what he’d seen her do.

“Press the green button, put it to your ear.. Hello?”

“WAS THIS YOU GUYS!? TURN ON THE NEWS!!” Came a loud voice from the other end, making him wince.

“.. Irma..?”

“Donnie? Why are you.. never mind just turn on the TV! You know how to do that right? It’s the red button on the top of the remote, the remote is..” 

“I know what that is..! I know.. hold on..”

A few seconds later he was gaping at the television, there on the screen was an image of the mall, that had been moved. And a sea of people at the parking lot where the mall used to be. The commentator chatting away, baffled by the spectacle.

“Uh.. April..? I think you need to see this..”

 

Leo stared at the television, tea spilled on the floor. Whoever had the ring, he was pretty sure it was the ring by now, had messed up royally.

“WOW! Now there is no question which artefact did THAT!” Mikey exclaims, mostly excited. He quickly starts searching his laptop. “Bam, area down, we can start looking around there and roughly an hour around it to start with. Should give us a good starting point.”

“Uh Leo..? Earth to Leo?”

“Huh? Sorry.. I just.. I wasn’t expecting... well, this.” He stared at the news, like it just wasn’t quite believable.

“Well… it’s not like we have to deal with it. If we’re lucky it will just be written off as this century’s biggest, unsolved mystery”  
“That’s just it, to some, like us, it isn’t a mystery. EVERYONE in this city could be watching the news.”

Mikey could tell he was worried, well… who wouldn’t be with a person holding a powerful artefact that was moving buildings around? Enemies who knew about the artefacts were also to consider... the ring and bracelet weren’t the only ones around after all.

As it turns out, they weren’t the only ones, who had a clue on what’s going on, watching the news…

\------------------------------------------------------------

Karai shifted in her seat, looking down on the wolf whose presence she had requested.

“Well? What do you think?” She gestured at the screen placed to the side, paused on an image of a shopping mall.

The wolf scratched his neck. “I’m sure they were there. But surely these kids couldn’t have had anything to do with THAT?”

“You are underestimating them.” She stated coldly, glaring down at her henchman. She snapped her fingers, a black clad ninja appearing out of nowhere with a scroll.

“Did any of them perchance wear any of these?” 

The wolf accepted the parchment, it was really old, he could feel it as he opened it up. The scribbles weren’t the easiest to make out, he wasn’t sure what one of them was meant to be. But comparing the other two with what the others had been wearing he could tell what they were supposed to be. Some kinda feather and hoops. Odd but familiar.

“Hmm yes.. one of them did wear these strange big earrings, like hoops. Didn’t quite pay attention to the rest but that one was pretty obvious.” He handed the scroll back, hoping he hadn’t said the wrong thing.

“I want you and your goons out looking for them. They carry something of value to me and my father, a ring. One of you will find it and bring it back. I will pay whoever brings it in handsomely as a reward.”

“... Yes master.” The wolf bowed and scurried out of the room. 

Karai sighed, she didn’t like to delve in her father’s obsessions, but she had promised to prioritise finding the different artefacts... and it would appear one of them just resurfaced. She had to admit she was intrigued, if this ring really did cause what she saw on the news, maybe her dad was onto something after all.

 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The day after…

“Okay you know what? I’ve been doing some thinking. If we’re gonna go out again we should hide our identities more.. like.. just in case anyone saw us and thinks we were involved.” She rummaged around a bit in the hallway basket of mittens and miscellaneous things. “Scarfs!”

She pulled a few out of the basket and inspected them. “Okay I got this.”

A few moments later…

“April I look ridiculous, it’s like I’m freezing, and it’s not even autumn!” Donnie inspected his new coat. It was a similar but slightly shorter one, with padding. This one was black instead. He also had a scarf up to his eyes, and the sides looked bulky as April had tried to hide the loops within.

“Ahahah.. yea, it does.” She had to agree. “If anyone asks you have a medical condition.” 

“What kind would that be exactly?” 

“A private one, which they don’t need to know about~” She stated as she put on an older coat and a new hat with sunglasses to hide better. Nothing like orange to scream ‘here I am’.

“Done.”

“You look ridiculous too.” 

“Shush, I know. But I’d rather look ridiculous than that wolf spotting us again at this point.”

They spent another day out, this time though keeping off the areas they had previously been in, not wanting to poke the area of the incident of yesterday with a 100-meter pole. This time they were trying to find out who these guys in black clothing were, they had done a couple of drawings as well. Some didn’t want to talk about it, it seemed.

“We’re definitely onto something, I can feel it!” April kept her spirits high as they walked along through a park. A guy feeding pigeons were sitting on a bench.

“Maybe we should ask that guy? I bet he sees a lot of people coming by..?”

“Hey..! Excuse me..?” April waved and carefully approached the man.

“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about guys dressed in black.. kinda like this?” Donnie handed over the drawing. They watched as the guy’s expression went from confusion, to recognition, to fear.

“What do you want with those folks? No good will come of it let me tell you. You’re too young to be looking for trouble.”

“Trouble? What do you mean..? We’re not really looking for them.. we just wanna know who they are.”

“… Criminals is what it is, and you should stop asking, or someone will tip them off, and trouble will find you!” He pushed the drawings back at April and left.

“….” They stared at one another.

“You think they kidnapped my dad..?”

“I don’t know.. but it’s a possibility..? They sound like some kind of crime organisation..” 

 

April felt her belly rumble as they walked by a noodle shop and blushed. “Uhm.. time for a break?”

“Yea, I think you could use one.” 

“Hey, I’m not the only one looking tired here.” She gave him a playful elbow nudge. It was true though, they both looked like they hadn’t slept much, which was probably true given yesterday’s events.

They walked inside and sat down on two barstools. The seats felt nice and the place was tiny and cosy, blinds hanging down in the windows, a few colourful rice lamps hanged down from the ceiling, casting a soft light over the whole place.

“Alright let’s see.. two bowls of Ramen then?”

“Sounds good!”

After placing their orders they spent the time waiting in silence. It didn’t take long before two steaming bowls of ramen was placed before them. Donnie poked at the eggs and ham placed in the bowl, it seemed like a really weird dish, he shrugged and tasted, it was actually better than he expected.

Don glanced towards April, she was staring down at her bowl, she had barely touched it and seemed to try to stare the eggs away.

“Hey… you okay..?” 

April sighed. “I just.. I’m SO worried… I can’t stop thinking.. what if? What if he isn’t even.. you know.. alive? What if I never find him? Maybe he’s being tortured.. or.. or.. forced to do something against his will.. maybe we’re too late..”

“You know..” Donnie sipped on his noodles before continuing. “You aren’t the only one worrying, okay? So we’re in this together. Whether you like it or not.”

She nodded slowly.

“And… you’re not gonna have the energy to rescue him if you go on an empty belly, it’s gonna be fine, okay? I’m with you.” He tried to smile reassuringly and patted her shoulder. She seemed to smile back in thanks, it warmed him to see her smile, even if just a bit.

She didn’t deserve this, any of it. He swore right then and there he’d do anything to help her find her dad.

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

 

They moved swiftly and silently across the city, geared up and searching every nook and cranny. They had marked down the search area around the mall and gone from there, including any areas where an O’Neil person had gone missing.

Mikey couldn’t quite place it, but he had a really good feeling about this evening, it felt like they were finally getting somewhere. Raph and Leo seemed to have been just as riled up, they finally had something more solid to go on.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

April and Donatello was walking along the street, after the food they had decided to ask at a couple more places, but after April nearly fell down the stairs they’d decided to call it quits.

They were nearly home when they attacked.

Two people stepped out in front of them, they looked like rather regular thugs.

“Let’s go this way…” Donnie mumbled and pulled April to go over the street, only to be blocked by another guy, then two more came up behind them.

“… what do you want? Back off or I’m calling the cops!” April threatened, feeling cornered. They simply scoffed and attacked.

“Watch out!” April rushed to meet their attackers head on, kicking and elbowing and fists flying in whatever direction she could manage. She blocked a hit, grabbing the arm and hit him in the gut, but then another guy hit her in the back.

“Gah..!” She gasped, turned and shoved him, desperately trying to fight them off, she barely had time to defend herself and couldn’t keep track of how her mutant friend was doing.

Don wasn’t exactly a fighter, but he had a shell, a pretty hard shell. He looked at the guy holding his hand, making pained sounds after connecting with his shell hidden under the cloak. The other guy learned quick though, targeting his legs and arms instead.

Donnie yelped as one of them managed to trip him, making him crash into the wall after trying to dodge a fist.

 

Mikey stopped in his tracks. He thought he heard something familiar, carefully making his way over to another building and peering down, he grinned wide, definitely familiar. Oh so familiar, it was hard not to scream out and jump down right then and there. He clicked the com-radio by his neck to activate it.

“Guys? I found something, I’m by the 5th block. Down to the east.”

 

When his brothers arrived just short of ten seconds later Michelangelo was grinning impossibly wide at them, they stared back at him. Neither Leo nor Raph had seen him smile like that in a long time.

“What are you on about..?” Raph looked down, only to find what seemed to be an ongoing robbery attempt. “You wanna help them or what?” They probably should but.. they did have more important things at hand.

“YES!” Mikey whispered as loud as he could. Raph could tell Leo was not aboard with this idea. Normally he would but... their priorities right now was finding their brother, which was way more important.

“Mikey I know we really should but.. currently we don’t really have time for-“

“Trust me bro, you really wanna do this!” He could barely contain his excitement, he was grinning so wide he didn’t know what to do with himself! Oh when his brothers realised! Before anyone could protest he quickly jumped down into the fray, trying really, really hard not to laugh out loud. Oh and also because the fight was taking a bad turn and they should probably intervene instead of just looking by now.

 

April felt her foot connect with the thief’s chest, she gasped for air and felt her adrenaline pump through her veins. As she blocked the second guy, a third one got her arms from behind. She yelled and struggled as the second one grabbed her as well. They weren’t exactly tough one by one, but there were just more than they could handle. five on two just wasn’t in their favour.

It wasn’t looking good, that is, until 3 shadows came flying down from the roof, hitting the guys molesting and holding her all in one go. She stumbled forward as she was released.

“What the?” 

As swift as the shadows had appeared, just as swiftly did they start beating down the criminals, it was settled in a matter of a minute.

“Guys! Code blue! Let’s bail!” One of them yelled and suddenly they all dropped the fight and ran around the corner.

“Hah, and stay away!” One of the new attackers yelled after them, a mutant she realised. Turtle mutants, actually. 

“.. Thank you..?” She managed to choke out, a little chocked from the sudden action.

“No sweat!” One of them came up and smiled at her. “You hurt?”

“No I… just a few scratches and rugged emotions..”

Donatello stiffened and stared at his brothers, slightly chocked, they were so different, yet not at all. While he had missed them terribly, he also didn’t really want to find them or for them to find him so soon. 

At least a few days more or so would have been nice, Leo was such a worry wart. He could practically already see it, his adventures with April around the city was as good as crushed. Even if they had seemed to get a tad dangerous as of late. Well it was inevitable considering the mall incident.

Michelangelo quickly jumped at him then, dragging him into a big bear hug.

“Ouf!” He hugged back and gave him a pat on the shell. It was good to see them again.

Raph and Leo looked at each other and shrugged, they weren’t sure what Mikey was doing.

“Uh, Mikey? What are you-?” The mentioned turtle quickly turned around.

“How slow are you guys? Don’t you recognise that??” He pointed at the feather on Don’s hat, he sighted impatiently and pulled off the scarf so they could see his face. “This clear enough for you?”

“DONNIE!” Now the other two quickly joined in the hugging.

“Yea it’s.. nice to see you guys too but.. you’re crushing me..!” Donnie gasped out as he tried to hug them back.

“How’d you.. where? How long?!” Leo smiled wide, they all grinned at each other.

“Well, a few days, I was gonna start looking for you in a couple days or so… We… could actually kinda use your help for something..” He glanced over at April, who seemed VERY confused.

“Right, this is April O’Neil, April this is my brothers, Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo.”

“Ooh O’Neil! Nice to meet you ape!” Mikey greeted her cheerily and grabbed her hand to shake it enthusiastically. “She looks just like her!”

“… Ape..? Nice.. to meet you too? Uhm, like who? And if they are your brothers, are they..?”

“Oh no, they’re not like that. It’s a long story…”

The turtle named Leonardo walked up to her, looking worried. “Is the ring safe?!” Donnie sighted a little, worry wart.

“Of course, it’s right… here..” April felt a sense of dread as her hand met nothing in her pocket, she quickly started searching around, realising her phone was gone as well. “But I was sure it was...” She darted back and started to look around on the ground. “I had it! I know I did..” 

“So you lost it.” Leo said in an accusing tone she did not like.

“I didn’t! I mean.. I did but.. how?! It was there the entire..” She paused, and recalled as one of them had held her from behind.. he didn’t..? Oh no. “I think they took it.” 

Donnie whined and looked extremely worried. “Took it?!” he exclaimed in a pitched and nervous voice. 

“Well isn’t that just great, this is why you don’t trust things like that in the hands of a kid!”

“Excuse me?” April glared at the grumpy looking brother.

“They can’t- Oh my- what if they know?? We have to-“ Raph interrupted Donnie and shoved the frantic turtle to the side.

“We’ll find them and take it back.” He twirled his Sai in his hand. “And then we’ll make them regret taking anything from us at all.”

Leo tossed his arms up in the air. “We don’t even know where they went! For all we know they could be miles-“

“They’re not.” 

Leo paused and looked at Don. “wha?”

“I SAID they’re not. I have a limited range.. remember? Or did all those years make you forget? I hope you didn’t forget anything else that could also be, I dunno.. important??” April could tell Donnie was starting to get a bit frustrated with his, apparently, brother, so she decided to back off on this one.

“Oooh! Ooh! I remember!” Mikey exclaimed happily. “But ya know how it is, it was a long time ago and you forget the details here and there! Or at least Leo and Raph does, can’t really blame ‘em~” 

Raph gave him a glare, Mikey was very annoying sometimes, especially when he got to brag about how he had a better memory than the rest of them, well.. not that it wasn’t true.. but the bragging was annoying as hell.

“Okay so we might need a refresh on the rules, so what? Big deal. Right now, we have some thieves to catch!”

“Raph wait, we need a plan.” He returned the glare his brother shot at him. “Seriously, we can’t mess this up ok? Donnie do you have any idea where it could be?” Leo asked, ignoring Raph’s grumbling.

Donnie sighted and took a deep breath. “I don’t know which way, but I can check where, maybe.” He closed his eyes and concentrated. “It’s... there are uneven walls all around.. I think it’s in a hand.” 

“Well that was helpful! I’ll remember to pry it from their fists when I find them.. I’m going now, that way.” Raph pointed and then he was off before anyone could stop him. Donnie watched as his hot-headed brother disappeared over the edge of the building and shook his head. Nothing seemed to have changed much, had it?  
Leo pinched the bridge of his nose and sighted. “Okay, we’ll split up and search, I’ll go this way, Mikey you go that way. Donnie.. you stay here with O’Neil and-”

 

“No.”

Leo’s eyes looked slightly surprised at the defiant tone his brother had, he could get angry and upset, not nearly as badly as Raph, but he’d never recalled him ever disobeying a direct order, except that one time. “Excuse me?”

“Donnie this is not up for discussion! We have way more experien- Woah!” Suddenly he was grabbed by the belt and pulled in close, his brother glaring him down, he’d missed that face.. just not.. this very angry face.

“I did NOT take the blow for all of us and stay cooped up in there just to sit back and watch you all run away to deal with this! Screw your experience, I’m coming too! And April isn’t some defenceless woman!”

“Damn straight!” April quickly backed him up, she would not tolerate them to step all over her and Donnie, then treat them like glass, brothers or not.

“Buuuurn!” Mikey whispered in the background, before disappearing in his designated direction, Leo could deal with that on his own, he kinda deserved it a little bit after that display. Grounding them was just plainly unfair, especially to Donnie, and this April girl seemed cool.

“We’re coming too, and that’s final.” Don crossed his arms and glared at his brother, he’d almost forgotten what it was like to have an argument with any of them.. slightly nostalgic.

“Fine.. but stay out of trouble, alright? We don’t want anything happening to you guys.”

“I told you we’re fine, besides I can assure you that-“ He stopped midsentence as he was suddenly tugged backwards. They both looked in surprise at him as he kept moving in quick jerks.

“Ouf! I think I found the direction they’re-“ Then he hit the wall, and disappeared with a poof.

“Where’d he go?!” April rushed to the wall and looked around in a panic, seeing nothing but the bricks and dirt there. Leo gritted his teeth, he should have seen that one coming.

“Don’t worry he should be on the other side, we’ll just have to follow. Before April could say anything else he grabbed her by the waist and started climbing up the building.

“Hey! Let me down! I’m not some doll!”

Leo did not have time for this. “This is faster. Also, I can’t let you go on your own, they probably know your face. Now be quiet.”

“Who are ‘they’?!”

“Not now.”

April fumed from her spot on the turtle’s shoulder, she might not be as fast as a mutant, but she sure as hell wasn’t some slow helpless doll either.

Donatello scrambled and floundered as he was pulled back through what seemed to be some sort of restaurant. He’d only been at the edge of the range in this manner once before and wasn’t sure how to make it stop.

“OW!” He hit his head against something and ducked a bit too late, if he could perhaps just turn around and run towards where he was going the pulling would stop.

“Oh come on! ...Gyah!” As he managed to turn facing the direction he was going he went straight over a counter and hit something face first. He spluttered and waved as a white dust cloud went everywhere, flour, great.

“Yuck! … WALL!” Then he found himself on the street again, past the building, still pulling. This time though there was space to start running and no furniture in the way. He tried to get his footing and wipe the flour off his face, this was not his day.

 

“There he is!” April shouted out and pointed as Leo jumped over the street in front of the building they’d just scaled down. By a crossing she saw the turtle struggle to gain balance and leave puffs of white clouds of something behind. It was almost cartoony.

“Guys I have a visual direction, they are somewhere ahead to the north of where we first found O’Neil and Donnie.” Leo talked into the com as he ran. “As far ahead as whatever the maximum range is.”

He ran up to Donnie, he was slightly slower than him in speed, which meant the guys they were after were running on foot, most likely.

“You okay?”

“Yeah..” He huffed. “ But the limited range is just behind me, so no more talking, gotta concentrate.” Then he disappeared.

Leo was alarmed at first, seeing as that had been his one compass for direction, but then realised Donnie had appeared a hundred meters ahead, and kept going.

“Guess we’ll just follow then.. Hang on.” Leo ran for all he was worth. Not enough to keep up with a guy who teleported a hundred meters now and then, but enough to keep a visual, sort of. They really should have spent less time talking.

 

Donnie spotted the thieves first, he was glad they had run fairly straight as far as general direction went, he almost ran past them as he spotted them up along another road.

They weren’t running anymore. He carefully wiped off the remaining white dust and dumped his coat on the pavement to mark the road, so the others wouldn’t miss it, he knew Leo wasn’t far behind, and started sneaking after them.

“---- and for what? These stupid little trinkets? I’m not so sure this artefact mumbo jumbo is even real..” One of them muttered.

“Then how about you try it then? Maybe it will give you super powers.” The tall one joked.

“Are you crazy? You do it, I want nuthin to do with the boss’ wrath.”

“Oh give it here, I’ll do it.” Said the bearded one, losing patience with his peers.

“WAIT!”

They all stopped and turned.

“Well if it isn’t the turtle from the fight~? I see you don’t have your friends with you… Here to get beat up some more~?”

“No.. I just…” _Buy some time... buy some time…_ “Just think that you should give it back. It’s just a stupid trinket. But for my friend it means a lot. It’s not actually worth any money.”

“You think we’re gonna fall for that?” The bearded guy scoffed. “Our boss wants this, our boss gets it.” He stated confidently and looked down on the weird turtle. Then he put the ring on and waved it teasingly.

“You’re gonna have to take it from me if you want it back~” The others laughed.

Donnie was feeling utter panic, he hoped they didn’t realise what it was but… he felt like vomiting regardless.

“What’s the long face for? Lost for words~?” One of them teased as the turtle grew silent and glared at them. “Hey I know, we can try that theory of yours, see if I get super powers. Or maybe I can shoot a beam?” He said as a pure joke and tired it out, pointing at Donnie.

“Pew..!” He looked at the ring, nothing happened. “… Guess not hahah” 

“Uh, James?”

“What?” He looked up, the turtle was gone. They looked all around, but it was as if the mutant had vanished.

“You don’t think..?” They looked confusedly at the ring. “That’s not… all I did was point it at him like this..” He held his finger up towards his friend, who pushed his arm down quickly.

“Don’t point that thing at me! What if I also disappear?!”

“Maybe.. maybe we shouldn’t play with it.. they SAID it was valuable and powerful.” One of them stated, suddenly feeling slightly scared. James took the ring off.

“Right. We’ll just get this to the boss, and forget that happened.” He stated shortly, as they turned a couple of weird looking knives hit the ground in front of them.

“Not so fast!” 

“Shit, I told you we should have just gone and ignored him, he was buying time!”

“No you didn’t, you said nothing.” The guy shoved him.

To be honest it wasn’t much of a fight, the thugs was pretty beaten up already, and despite both sides being slightly tired from the chase, it was rather one sided.

Mikey blew a raspberry at James as he picked the ring from his finger and placed it on his own finger.

“I think I’m gonna take that one thank you very much~” The ring adjusted for his much thicker finger, he smiled down at it, stepping over the guy he’d just beaten down without a care.

“Got it guys!” he cheered

“Sweet, now let’s go.” Raph twirled his sais and struck the guy he’d been playing with on the forehead. “Pft, these guys aren’t worth the effort.”

“It’s obvious these are just hired thugs, let’s go before more capable enemies show up to their aid.” Leo suggested

Raph sighed. _“Fine.”_

Mikey sighted a little as one of the thieves tried to get at him for having the ring, despite the fight obviously being over.

“Dude, you already lost~” He grinned, easily hitting the guy and barely looking at him.

They watched as the guy fumbled and then ran away, trailing after his friends as they all retreated.

“You two go back, I’ll bring miss O’Neil to her home.”

“Okay let’s bail.” Without a second thought, they started running off.

“HEY!” April yelled at them. “You can’t just take him and leave!”

“….” They stopped and looked at her.

“He’s my FRIEND! And you can’t just..! I wanna know what’s going on!” She demanded.

“Guys?” Mikey hesitated and looked towards the others. “Maybe we shouldn’t just?”

“Sure we can. They did that to us, why shouldn’t we do the same?” Raph huffed and crossed his arms.

“Because then we’ll be no better than them!” Mikey pointed out and grabbed the ring from Raph, throwing it back to April.

“Hey!”

April quickly caught the ring as Mikey threw it towards her. She hugged it tightly and glared at the other two, in case they dared to try take it back.

“Besides, it’s too dangerous to leave her on her own without knowing.” He pointed out.

Leo sighed. “Fine, we’ll tell you what’s going on, but not here. Let’s get back to our place first.”

An hour later…

“You seriously have Raph issues.” Leo snickered. April just looked confused where she sat in the couch. They had gotten back and she was offered tea and a blanket.

“Wha…?”

Donnie leaned in towards her. “He means you have anger issues.” She instantly looked slightly offended.

“Do not! I’ll have you know I’m a very calm and patient person!” Even Donnie snorted a bit at that, but she ignored it in favour of scolding Leo.

“I mean it! I’m just really upset because my dad is missing and there is all this crazy stuff happening around me that I don’t understand! You’d be frustrated too if you were in my boat!” She pointed accusingly at the eldest turtle. “So give me a break and start explaining things so I DO get them!”

“Okay so how do we start..” Leo pondered a bit when Mikey decided to just jumpstart it all.

“April is the descendant of a Genie! How about there~?” He winked at April and grinned. 

“I am..?” April gave Donnie a weird look.

“Not ME!” Don quickly defended. He pretended not to see the slight relief in April’s expression. 

“Genies aren’t born, they are made. So before all this I was just like my brothers, well, minus the no aging bit.”

“So then.. who was the genie that I’m apparently a descendant of...?” April felt more confused than ever.

“Look guys, we’re just confusing her. Let’s take this in the right order. Okay, here’s what happened... Over 500 years ago…” Leo started. 

“Oooh story time!” Mikey grabbed a blanket and made himself comfortable in the couch.

“Don’t interrupt! … Anyway, we were just some stray kids, surviving on the edge of a town…”

\------------------------------------------------

“Leo I’m hungry!” Mikey complained as they slowly crawled through a narrow tunnel.

“Schh!” Leo put a finger to his mouth to signal his little brother to be quiet. “Raph and Don should be back with food later. Now be quiet or they’ll catch us.” The two kids continued to carefully get through the tunnel until they came to a dead end, or so it seemed.

Leo looked up to find a grate, he carefully twisted around onto his back. “Give me the metal bit”

Mikey passed along a piece of a broken off dagger, Leo grabbed it and started to push it in along the edges to loosen the grate. With a click the grate came off, he slowly removed it and dragged himself up to take a peek.

“Is it empty..?”

“I think so..” I peered into the dimly lit room, the room was rather large with items, crates and shelves, there was an open door to a smaller room and another more rigid door, he knew there was a gate on the other side. When he didn’t see anyone he carefully pulled himself up, then helped Mikey. “ONLY bare minimum okay? We don’t want them to notice we stole something. Okay?” Leo warned before going off to find something of value that wouldn’t be missed.

“Okaaay..” Mikey sighted as quietly as he could and sneaked off to scavenge along the shelves. They’d stolen before, out of desperation, but this was different. They were stealing from a clan of bandits, or they assumed they were some sort of bandits anyway, bad people!

Leo always hated to steal, but it didn’t feel so bad if the people they stole from were evil. Though this was on a whole new level of dangerous.

They had found a secret hideout belonging to a clan who was known to terrorise and steal from villages around the area, and now Mikey and Leo had managed to infiltrate it. They wouldn’t have done it if an old man hadn’t asked them to take back something that was stolen, of course he had offered them something they just couldn’t refuse. A home and food, and they were desperate.

Just to be on the safe side they had agreed to steal something small as well, to make sure they got by in case the old man didn’t keep his end of the deal, one could never be too careful.

“Is this it..?” Mikey asked.

“… No.” 

“How about this one..?”

“Mikey that isn’t even close, do you need to look at the drawing again?” Then he froze, a clacking sound was heard. The gate!

“!!” They looked at each other in panic, then they scattered. Mikey dove behind a curtain while Leo ran into the next room to find somewhere to hide. He stopped in his tracks however and simply stared, there, right there on the floor was literally a pile of gold and valuables. Just like in the stories with treasures.

“..Shit.” He quickly got out of his daze by the sound of armoured boots, looking around the room there was nowhere else to go, so he placed himself along the wall by the door he came into. Hoping they wouldn’t find him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still learning how to write, but I hope you liked it! Hopefully it won't take so long to get the next one out.

**Author's Note:**

> So as you can maybe? see there are a few differences than the standard stuff, I wanted to go for something a little different and choose a ring instead of a lamp haha. Not sure if this is worth to keep writing on but I'd love to hear what you think! Also do point out any mistakes and errors so I can fix them! I try keep them to a minimum but I sometimes miss stuff anyway. >_>
> 
> Also if anyone has any particular wishes on what henchemen or characters I should drag in that's fine too! I'm just gonna pretend that I know what I'm doing.


End file.
